Unspeakable Potter
by Z-bond
Summary: All he ever wanted to do was to protect his loved ones and prevent further tragedies from happening, but will he throw his humanity away to achieve it? Features a powerful Harry! Pairings: Harry/OC, Harry/Fleur. Neville Longbottom is BWL.
1. Prologue

**Hello everyone, this idea just popped out of my head as I was relaxing from doing AP Physics C (this crap is so hard), FML. Anyways! I had to put this on paper, I simply had to...before I forget. Harry will be pretty badass in this so be warned, he's gonna be like a thousand times stronger than in canon. I have always hated canon Harry Potter, simply didn't like it. **

Prologue

The evening air was filled with the roars and snarls of magical creatures mixed with the shouts of men and women. Bright and sizzling flames were everywhere,

"_Sectemsempra!__" _a heavily cloaked figure cried out with a downward slash of his wand, too fast for the human eye to see and the Death Eater was sent to the floor, a sickening gurgling accompanying the blood seeping out of the dying man's destroyed throat.

"Commander Potter!" The tall cloaked man turned to the voice.

"Report, Captain Cullen!" while sending an organ liquefying curse at another silver masked wizard.

"Sir, giants are attacking our flanks!" Cullen replied via his wolf patronus.

"Understood." Unspeakable Commander, Harry Potter replied. "_Duro,__Confringo!__" _He cried with a slash of his wand and the charging werewolf turned into stone before blowing apart.

Noticing that Death Eaters were surrounding him, Harry cried out with his wand pointed directly at the black sky, "_Fulmen!__"_ the sounds of thunder accompanied bolts of lightning came crashing down from the sky and struck the Death Eaters surrounding the cloaked figure. Helpless screams were all that were heard and with a smirk, the tall black haired wizard slipped his wand back in its holster once satisfied with the electrocuted corpses surrounding him.

Closing his eyes, the leader of the Unspeakables began chanting and soon black energy surrounded the wizard and with a deafening roar, the wizard expanded in size, his arms lengthening with razor sharp claws sprouting out at the ends of its hands, large powerful black wings erupted out of its shoulders. A large black tail covered with spikes with magical resistant plating shot out. Finally, its scaly, lizard like head emerged from the shadows along with its powerful jaw and razor sharp steak knife like teeth.

With another ground shaking roar, the large, ferocious black dragon took off to the skins, it located its targets and opening its mouth, unleashed torrents of scorching red flames on the giants who were overwhelming the group of wizards and witches. Landing violently amidst the wreckage, the large black dragon unleashed another jet of searing hot flames on the helpless Death Eaters, who were trying desperately to repel the lord of the skies but their spells did nothing to the flying serpent's scales. With a powerful sweep of its tail, the Death Eaters were floored like flies.

Crushing a Death Eater painfully with its claws, the black dragon arched its head backwards before releasing another torrent of fire red flames on the oncoming giants. Seeing that it was futile to resist, the Death Eaters plus their magical creature allies retreated with great disdain.

Slowly, the dragon turned its eyes towards the group of wizards and witches that he had just rescued and black energy engulfed the magnificent creature and like that of a whirlpool, the energy twirled around till it disappeared into the ground, leaving a heavily black cloaked figure in the center.

Dropping the dead and crushed Death Eater to the floor, the leader of the Unspeakables walked calmly towards the group; his glowing green eyes focused on only one individual. Even though with her face being caked with dust, and dirt, her clothes ripped at the sleeves and knees, Fleur Delacour was still the epitome of perfection.

Harry watched as she floated towards him, and when she was near enough, reached out and cupped his cheeks; her piercing, enchanting sapphire blue eyes staring straight into his hard, glowing emerald ones.

"'Arry…you came…" She whispered, her French accent making the sound even more exquisite than it already is.

"For you Fleur…always." Harry responded before he was pulled into a deep passionate kiss, pulling off his black gauntlets the young leader of the Unspeakables wrapped his strong arms around Fleur's slender waist and deepened their kiss, pulling her so close to himself that it seemed like the two were melded as one, the battle and dangers surrounding the pair all but forgotten.


	2. Journey To Hogwarts

A.N.- Great to be back, Harry will be all mighty and powerful, I've told you all readers a million times already: I ABSOLUTELY DETEST stories with a weak Harry. He is the defeater of Voldemort at age one, so ACT like one.

Chapter 1: Triwizard Tournament

"Not fast enough!" A fourteen-year-old boy with messy black hair and bright green emerald eyes was blasted off his feet and landed on his back.

"Uggh…no fair, you said you'll go easy on me big brother." Ryan Potter whined while rubbing his head. Standing at the other end of the dueling room in Potter Manor with his arms folded across his chest was his elder brother and five-time reigning world champion duelist, Harry Potter. Their facial resemblances were scarily similar, the only difference being that Harry was seventeen and was six foot two whereas Ryan was three years younger and was only five foot nine but both did not have the horrible eyesight that their father had which only amplified their already drop-dead-gorgeous features.

In other words, Ryan was a miniature version of Harry. Both of them had the messy raven black hair and the charismatic looks that could only be described as the Potter look.

"I lied." Harry replied dryly with a small smile on the edge of his lips, which he only did in the presence of his family. Then walking towards his sibling, Harry pulled up his brother with no difficulty at all. Then the doors opened and revealed a beautiful woman with long fiery red hair and bright, shining green eyes came in with a cheery smile on her face.

"You boys finished? Its nearly time to get to King's Cross." Lily Potter asked. Both boys nodded and filed out of the room rather quickly. The two Potter boys bolted up to their rooms on the second floor and came out after changing into a comfortable set of clothes.

"Hnn…maybe next time you should have your things ready the night before." Harry mused with his acoustic guitar strung over his right shoulder when he saw his brother frantically throwing his books and other school related items along with robes into his luggage, he was wearing skinny black jeans that showed off his long thin legs along with a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up accompanied by a long, narrow navy blue tie and a black vest.

"Yeah yeah whatever, I'm not as organized as you are." Ryan retorted, still throwing stuff inside his luggage.

"Obviously…_Pack_." Harry incanted wandlessly and clothes, books, bottles of ink, stacks of parchment and quills organized themselves neatly into the suitcase, which left his younger brother speechless.

"How'd you do that?" He asked with eyes wide with awe, almost popping out.

"Practice." Harry dryly responded and walked out of his brother's room. Then before Ryan could further question Harry about it, their mother's shout to them to hurry up caused the two to sprint down the stairs.

"About time boys…got everything? You have the map?" James Potter said with a big grin while holding his daughter's hand. Ten year old Rose Potter just giggled innocently, whereas Harry and Ryan took after their father, the youngest Potter took after her mother with the fiery red hair and the same shining green eyes.

"Sorry dad, but shrimp boy here thought it would be amusing to pack the last minute." Harry said, opening the trunk and placing his guitar inside, he never ever tried to shrink the musical instrument before and opened the car door of their family Mercedes before getting in, As he did so, a large bird of prey with brownish black feathers covering its body and white feathers covering its head with intense, vigilant black eyes also flew in and took its spot on Harry's shoulder and purred as its comrade stroked its back.

"Hey! Well when you put it that way-." Ryan started but knew it was futile to win a verbal war with his elder brother and got in the car as well. James Potter watched the whole scene with mirth dancing in his eyes, he was extraordinarily proud of all his children and the way they turned out, he glad in a way that Voldemort had chosen to go after the Longbottoms instead of his family. It was a terrible thought but he couldn't help the thought from entering his mind.

He kissed his wife on the cheek as she joined them in the car and started the engine. Harry was reading _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers _by J. R. R. Tolkien while Ryan was having an active conversation with his father regarding to the Quidditch Final between Ireland and Bulgaria. Rose was humming a happy tune while patting her older brother's familiar lovingly; quite the fascinating family indeed from any onlooker.

Once the Potters arrived at King's Cross Station, which was busy with activity as usual with people looking to board their respective trains.

"Okay boys, you know the drill." James said. Harry rolled his eyes and with his guitar strung over his shoulder, simply camouflaged himself and his eagle familiar with a wandless disillusionment charm and blended in with the environment.

"I really shouldn't have exposed his talents to Moody…" James muttered dryly to himself, ever since discovering that Harry had a knack of absorbing and mastering anything he learnt with inhumane speed, he had asked Alastor Moody, former Head Auror to mentor and help his son to master and control his abilities. Even the old Auror was dumbfounded by the magical potential the boy had and thus started training the boy on improving his connection with magic and exploring the possibilities of wandless magic, while he was not of age Harry could not use a wand but James, Lily and Moody all noticed that the quiet reserved child could levitate things with his bare fingers at will.

Rare and uncommon amongst most magical children, they all thought that levitation was all Harry could do but as he grew older and began to learn more advanced spells, he could also perform them wandlessly. James could hardly believe it when he saw the marks of his eldest child after his first year, all Outstandings, even in History of Magic! His wife had an incredibly proud smile etched on her face as she looked on Harry's results with him.

As for little Harry, he just smiled a bit and went on playing his violin as if it were no big deal. His O.W.L.S were even more impressive, James literally was close to dropping his jaw to the floor when he saw the twelve O.W.L.S his son had achieved, even Lily didn't have that many when they went to school; he did enjoy flaunting it in front of his colleague's faces though, he was James Potter to the core.

James's thoughts were shrugged off when he appeared on Platform Nine And Three Quarters with his wife along with Ryan and Rose. Immediately, a familiar sense of nostalgia hit him as he saw the red and black Hogwart's Express.

Harry was already there accompanied by Fenris, his proud Bald Eagle companion who had perched himself on his master's shoulders. Whereas most wizards and witches used Owls, Harry had found himself entranced by the majestic and intelligent bird as soon as he entered the pet shop in Diagon Alley almost six years ago.

_"Harry, sweetie? You've been staring at that bird for a while now…" Lily Potter stated while ruffling her son's hair. _

_"It's so beautiful mum." Harry replied and asked the shopkeeper behind the counter. _

_"Excuse me sir but what is that beautiful creature there." He pointed at the haughty looking brown-feathered bird with a white feathered head, intense dark eyes and yellow beak. _

_"Ah, I have no clue myself, muggles call it the Bald Eagle but it has shown some fascinating things which I highly doubt are from an average bird of prey." The shopkeeper mused while rubbing his beard and added, "You want a closer look? I have to warn you though; it has some pretty sharp talons and a nasty temper. No one has ever managed to win its obedience." _

_With a nervous yet determined look on his face, the eleven-year-old boy with messy black hair and bright emerald green eyes slowly approached the magnificent bird of prey, who was rubbing its beak against its feathers. Then suddenly, bird of prey and wizard locked eyes and caused Harry to gulp under its stern gaze. _

_"You are different than the others…" Harry heard a deep, bass voice echoing within his mind. He immediately reinforced his Occlumency Shields, a useful skill to develop at a young age to repel mental attacks. "Relax child, I am no threat to you." _

_Harry did so and asked, "You can talk?" _

_"Of course I can talk? What do you think I am, some sort of overgrown mixed color chicken?" Harry couldn't help but smirk at its humorous rant. From that moment on, Fenris had chosen its long awaited master and became one of Harry James Potter's most trusted and important comrade in addition to being his familiar._

Harry himself was leaning casually against a pillar and ignoring the incessant giggling and looks of undeniable lust from his female schoolmates.

"Wow, you're almost as good as me son, back in my glorious days. They're literally undressing you." James said and cringed when his wife kicked him hard in the shin.

"That hurt Lils!" He exclaimed, to which Lily Potter just smiled satisfactorily at.

"Bad encouragement is not needed." She said rather strictly and winked at her eldest son when she saw him half sniggering and half clearing his throat. Meanwhile, Ryan and Rose were already laughing full-blown as they watched their father getting chewed out.

"No worries mum. I unlike somebody, think with my brains and not with my bits." Harry replied dryly and got a rather loud "HEY!" from his father whilst eliciting a proud smile from his mother.

Then after checking one last time that they had everything, Harry and Ryan said their goodbyes. Lily of course was in an emotional wreck like usual as she held both of her sons in an iron hard embrace, Rose just giggled melodiously and covered her mouth with her small hands as she saw her two brothers getting their oxygen supply cut off by their mother.

"Now you two be careful, there's going to be changes around Hogwarts this year and for once, I can't believe I'm saying this but please stay out of trouble." James said with a grave face. "What's up dad?" Ryan asked while Harry had a questioning look on his face.

"Sorry boys, I really can't spill the beans on this one or I'll get a severe tongue lashing from Amelia." He replied and Ryan grinned widely whereas Harry just smirked, Amelia Bones was the Director of Magical Law Enforcement and the number one person James Potter wanted to stay on the good side in addition to being the one of the few people he was truly afraid of.

"Sure dad, you got it." Ryan promised, their father had never been one to obey the rules but when he did, it was probably the smart thing to do. Harry just nodded, he was a model student and never broke the rules; well, everyone assumed he didn't.

"Dad, did you know that Bertha Jorkins has gone missing?" Harry asked once Ryan was out of range.

Meeting his eyes, James seemed to be contemplating and finally with a sigh said, "Yes, it seems that her last whereabouts were in Albania and I won't lie to you son, but I'm going to be there with Adrian to investigate this."

Digesting the information, Harry nodded. Looking much more relieved, James gave his son a hug and said, "I don't know why but I have a really bad feeling about this year…take care of yourself and Ryan."

"Don't I always Dad?" Harry answered sarcastically and giving him a pat on his shoulder, James steered Harry over to the rest of their family. After one last hug and kiss from their mother, Harry and Ryan boarded the train and waved from the windows on the corridor of the Hogwart's Express as the train began to depart from the station.

James waved back and shook his head as he placed a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder, "If this is bad, what will happen next year when Rose goes off too?" He mentally asked himself while looking at his wife, who was waving tearfully at the departing train.

"Let's go get some ice-cream, what'd you say girls?" He asked and was rewarded with a loud squeal from his daughter and a large tearful, yet happy smile from his wife. Once on the train, Harry and Ryan split off to find their respective friends.

"Hey Harry, how was your summer?" Cho Chang, a pretty Asian girl asked as Harry entered the compartment, while admiring her friend and housemate's attire.

"Great Cho, I was dragged into watching the Quidditch World Cup by my dad and brother..." Harry said unenthusiastically, causing the petite Fifth Year Ravenclaw girl to giggle.

"I'm surprised that they did since Quidditch isn't exactly your thing." She said.

"Fenris, I'll meet you at the Owlery after the feast, it'll give you some time to stretch your wings." Harry said, opening the window and his magnificent partner didn't think twice as it stretched its brownish black wings and soared out of the train and into the freedoms of the sky. It was a well weaved legend that Harry Potter had led Ravenclaw House to an undefeated year in his first year as Chaser. Scoring an average of six hundred points per game, but quit after stating there was no competition and that the sport was boring, leaving the then Ravenclaw Captain in tears for days.

He had only played that one year in order to keep a deal he made with his little brother, who was not old enough to attend Hogwarts yet.

"You're lucky, I still can't believe my dad actually proposed that we go to the World Cup with the Weasleys." Cedric Diggory, a Hufflepuff seventh year and one of the few people Harry Potter respected said as he slapped a high five with Harry. Harry scoffed, the Weasley's were most notable for the amount of children they had, which fascinated him to no end with questions such as how did they manage to send all their kids to Hogwart's with just the salary of Arthur Weasley and judging by the disgusting slob that was Ronald Weasley, the second youngest child in the family, the food required to feed all the people in their family.

Ryan had often complained to him about the redhead's extremely loud and irritating snoring and his immense stupidity. However, Harry didn't really have anything against them like his respected yet competitive rival and the current King of Slytherin, Edward Malfoy, who believed that they were all useless and a disgrace to the name of wizard. Cedric and Harry's conversation were brought to a temporary halt as the compartment door slid opened revealing a tall, lean six foot two young man with pale blonde hair.

"Potter." Edward Malfoy greeted Harry with a nod of respect and acknowledgement, dressed in an all black soft silk suit with a black button up shirt. Edward, like all Malfoys, inherited the highly aristocratic facial features along with their signature grayish blue eyes. Along with his physical attributes, he had also received the classic Malfoy haughtiness.

"Malfoy, I trust your summer went rather well?" Harry inquired.

"It was, Mother got us in the Ministry's box…the buffoon Fudge, himself invited us." Edward said and sneered at the part when he mentioned their incompetent lowlife of a Minister.

"Well deserved title indeed." Harry thought to himself.

"Diggory….Chang…" Edward greeted smoothly and without saying anything else to them, walked off.

"Well, Malfoy certainly has his wand up his arse…as usual." Cedric commented after Edward had left.

"Of course he does, he's Malfoy." Cho remarked, making the Hufflepuff roll his eyes.

"Think how worse he would be if Lucius Malfoy weren't sentenced to Azkaban…" Harry drawled. It was true, after the Malfoy head was out of the picture, his wife and Harry's distant cousin Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, yes, cousin because all purebloods are related in some way or another, became the head of the house and played a large part in Edward and Draco being less hateful against non purebloods.

Harry then opened his guitar case and started strumming muggle artist, John Lennon's famous song, Imagine. The guitar was beautifully crafted, with a cream beige top, a brownish pickguard and headstock; it was his most treasured possession and a birthday gift from his mother. It was one of the best days in his life and he would often strum songs for his parents, siblings and most important of all, himself.

"I still don't know why all the witches go nuts whenever they see you with that thing on your back." Cedric stated with a very confused look on his face and cringed when an outraged Cho punched him in the shoulder.

"What was that for?" He exclaimed. "Silly Ceddy, women love men who can be romantic and Harry is the perfect knight in shining armor which every witch dreams of being in the arms of." The small Asian girl finished with a dreamy look, eliciting a bewildered look from the Hufflepuff but nonchalance from her housemate, who was still strumming consistently and perfectly.

"How is Harry all that? He hasn't had a girlfriend at all during all his years at Hogwarts." Cedric countered puzzlingly, "Women are so impossible…" He thought to himself. "Am I sensing jealousy?" Cho asked with a grin to which the Hufflepuff just denied.

Harry Potter was known as the Kaiser of Ravenclaw, extremely well respected and liked for his flawless dueling and perfect academic record, that naturally brought him a lot of affection from the witches from the school but Harry scoffed mentally. "If it weren't for my achievements and looks, they won't even care. What a bunch of fickle fakes." That was precisely why he never dated nor attempted to, despite his father's shock in addition to that being a relationship will often be complicated and expose weaknesses for your enemies to take advantage of.

"Have you heard of You-Know-Who's mark being shot up in the sky after that Death Eater surprise attack after the World Cup?" Cedric asked, switching to a new topic.

"Yeah, I saw it that night…" Cho said while shuddering.

Harry remained expressionless, "Strange…first Bertha Jorkins disappears. Now the Dark Mark…this can't be a mere coincidence." Harry thought quietly to himself as he continued to strum his guitar, to him, everything had a purpose and nothing ever happened by chance. The trip to Hogwarts was peaceful after that as Cedric and Cho enjoyed listening to their friend strumming various popular muggle pop songs on his guitar. Then they got their things readied as the train pulled onto the pitch darkness of Hogsmeade Station.

The rumbling of thunder could be heard as soon as the train doors swung open and rain was pouring down hard. Harry with his tie and vest stored away in his trunk, which was shrunken and placed into his pocket was now wearing only his skinny black jeans, white button up shirt, expensive looking black leather shoes and a long black trench coat that reached a bit beyond his knees.

"Something wrong?" Harry asked as he walked towards his brother who was conversing with a blonde haired boy with grayish blue eyes and a badge of a serpent on the front of his robes and a bushy haired brown haired pretty girl with brown eyes, who shrank under the tall Ravenclaw's intense stare.

"Oh hi big brother, its nothing. Just Theodore Nott trying to rile Weasley and Longbottom as usual. It almost came to blows." Ryan said while shaking his head.

"We were in the compartment next to theirs when we heard the arguing." Draco Malfoy explained, Draco and Ryan had been playmates when they were younger just like Edward and him were once the same.

"Did you interfere?" Harry asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Nope. Nothing against them but Weasel never learns." Ryan replied with a halfhearted shrug.

"Ryan!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What? That loser was always mean to you whenever you try to help him and that Longbottom doesn't do anything to stop it." Ryan retorted back and the bushy haired witch fell silent.

"I'll see you around, be on your guard." Harry said sternly before walking off, disappearing into the crowd. Then Ryan and his two friends reached the carriages and hoped into one, relishing the dryness and warmth it provided, they weren't alone as students scrambled towards the carriages to avoid the merciless rain pouring down violently.

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry was sitting crossed leg alone in a carriage was flipping a sickle. In all honesty, Harry did not enjoy another year of Hogwarts albeit this was his last. Everything was always too easy, too unchallenging. From the first day of class, he had already noticed that he was better than all of his fellow students in his year and beyond. At first, he thought maybe it was all his training to control his rather large magical core but the theory dissipated over time. No, it wasn't just that, there was no explanation to why he was unbeatable in dueling and gifted in mastering everything he learnt; he was just special.

Five years ago, Dueling Arena, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

_"Finally, this year's Dueling Champion will be born after this final duel, will the four time reigning Champion, Kaiser sit firm on his untouchable throne or will he finally be toppled? Ladies and Gentlemen I present you the judge and Charms Master, Professor Flitwick." Lee Jordan commentated. _

_Loud applause soon echoed the arena as the tiny Charms Professor stepped on the stage. _

_"And to our contestants, representing Gryffindor, Sixth year Eric Adams!" Enthusiastic cheers from the red and gold section of the arena could be heard as a tall boy with strawberry blonde hair and the build of a American football player lumbered onto the stage. _

_Lee then struck out an arm towards the other end of the platform and bellowed, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, our four straight year champion, with an undefeated record up to this very day, KAISER POTTER!" The arena was flooded with the deafening shouts of incoherent cheering from the Ravenclaw boys and the screams of adoration from the girls as Harry walked calmly up the stage, wearing his black school robe, which was different from all his peers with its tighter bound sleeves along with a more pronounced collar. He wore a black long sleeve t-shirt inside as well as skinny long black pants. _

_Eric Adams was looking down menacingly at Harry but to his surprise, only to find an unflinching gaze. Fifthteen minutes later and a battered and bruised Eric was thrown onto the floor unconscious from a powerful and well struck stunner from Harry, who slid his wand back into its holster on his belt, not even close to sweating. "This is such a joke." He thought to himself as the sounds of cheering reached his ears._

The carriage stopped and the tall and lean Ravenclaw stepped out, changed into his Hogwart's uniform, not hurrying even with the pouring rain quickly soaking his hair. Walking inside the cavernous torch lit Entrance Hall, with its magnificent marble staircase. Students began to scatter and make a clear path as the number one duelist of the school walked gracefully and slowly passed them and through the double doors on the right of the Entrance hall. The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start of term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in mid-air.

The four long house tables were packed with chattering students; at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils. Harry walked towards the Ravenclaw Table, ignoring the looks of adoration from Hogwart's witch population. He took a seat between his close friend, Roger Davies and Cho.

"Hail Kaiser, had a good summer?" Roger asked, he, like Harry was tall and lean standing at a height of six foot one with soft looking chocolate brown hair and matching brown eyes. Harry simply nodded coldly, causing the brown haired Ravenclaw to give Cho, who was giggling, with a look that said, "What's the matter with this guy?"

"Harry really hates repetitive questions." Cho explained, while the man in question tried his best to give the small Asian girl an immensely cold glare with only caused her to giggle louder.

"You're not the only one with a Death Glare around here Harry, in fact, you're talking to a master of it." Cho replied and Harry gave up and focused his attention to the sorting. The sorting always brought back the memory of his own sorting six years ago. He would never forget the conversation with the moldy, old Sorting Hat.

_An eleven-year-old Harry Potter walked up towards the stool as Transfiguration Mistress and Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall called his name from a long scroll. McGonagall then subsequently dropped the pointed hat on his head, covering his eyes in the process. _

_"Well well, what have we here…" An annoyed, grumbling voice said in his mind. _

_Immediately, Harry raised his Occlumency shields. "Most interesting, very indeed. You have the one of the strongest Occlumency barriers I've ever encountered but you will find mental barriers good as useless against me…." Harry scowled at the comment as the Hat continued to muse on about his traits. _

_"Yes…yes, very intelligent…Rowena would be delighted yes. There is only one place where you belong, RAVENCLAW!" Taking off the hat and giving it back to McGonagall, who was a bit crestfallen that the child of her two best former students had not been sorted into Gryffindor, Harry walked towards the table that belonged to the house of intellect._

Harry was snapped back into reality when Kevin Whitby was sorted into Hufflepuff and subsequently ended the sorting for this school year. As soon as Professor McGonagall returned to the staff table, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore stood up in his light bluish robes and with a twinkle in his blue eyes, said in a deep voice "Tuck in."

Then with a clap of his hands, food appeared on the four tables and the sounds of using cutlery could be heard. Harry raised an eyebrow at the food before him, not that he had anything against steak, pork chops, lamb chops and mash potatoes and gravy but it had a detrimental effect on his body if consumed in mass quantity.

Thus he resorted to his food of choice, green salad with fresh asparagus and carrots. Cho did the same next to him while Roger looked on and said, "Why do you both eat nothing but a lot of vegetables all the time?"

"Because eating all that greasy and high cholesterol food is going to cause serious problems to your body." Harry said as he speared several asparagus and propped them into his mouth.

"What's a cholesterol?" Roger asked with confusion written all over his face. Harry stared at his friend and after sharing a look with Cho, returned to eating his salad.

"I see an empty chair, do you think they found a new teacher to teach Defense?" Cho inquired.

"I dunno, but if they did, there wouldn't be an empty seat." Roger stated. Then, as if an answer to Roger's statement, the doors of the Great Hall banged opened blaringly. A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black travelling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled towards the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark grey hair, then began to walk up towards the teacher's table. The man walked up to the staff table, a dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step.

Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling and Harry could hear Cho gasp from beside him. The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, it looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces were suppose d to look like , and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash and a large chunk of the nose was missing. However the most frightening part was the man's eyes. One of them was small, dark and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye- and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so all they could see was whiteness.

"Alastor…but what is he doing here?" Harry thought to himself with rare astonishment. The last time Alastor Moody and he crossed paths was a year ago when he had won his fifth consecutive World Champion title and he did not mention anything about coming to Hogwarts.

He watched as Moody approached Dumbledore and shook his hand with a badly scarred hand, they muttered a bit and Moody was gestured to the empty chair on his right hand side. Moody then sat done, shook his mane of dark grey hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages towards him, raised it to what was left of his nose and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket , speared a sausage on the end of it and began to eat.

"Paranoid as ever." Harry thought to himself with a smirk, as he stared at his former mentor. Dumbledore then introduced Moody to the entire student population, who were gawking at Moody unashamedly.

Clearing his throat rather loudly, Dumbledore addressed "As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a legendary event, The Triwizard Tournament."

"You're JOKING!" said Fred Weasley loudly. The tension that had filled the air since Moody's arrival seemed to have dissipated immediately.

Everyone laughed and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively. "I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though, now you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar—" McGonagall cleared her throat rather loudly with a glare at Dumbledore who quickly said, "Er— but maybe this is not the time…no… Where was I? The Triwizard Tournament is series of magical competitions between three magical schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic of France and Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning up North in which a single Champion is selected from each school to compete."

At this, the entire Ravenclaw Table glanced at Harry, save the first years who obviously hadn't heard of their house legend yet, which spoke for the amount of respect Harry had. However, the young man in question remained unfazed as he stared at Dumbledore, who returned the stare with a half proud, half expecting smile.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money." Immediately, people began to whisper fervently to their neighbors. But then Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall fell silent once more.

"Eternal glory. That is what awaits the student who wins the Triwizard Tournament. But to do this, that student must survive three tasks…" Dumbledore was serious now, "Three extremely dangerous tasks."

"Wicked"

"Wicked" The Weasley twins said at the same time.

"For this reason, the Ministry has seen fit to impose a new rule. To explain all this, we have the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Mr. Bartemius Crouch." An unsmiling, stiff and upright elderly men, dressed in dark blue robes and tie stood up from the staff table and walked to the podium next to Dumbledore. The parting in his short grey hair was almost unnaturally straight and his narrow toothbrush moustache looked as though he trimmed it using a slide rule.

"After due consideration, the Ministry has concluded that, for their own safety, no student under the age of 17, shall be allowed to put forth their name for the Triwizard Tournament." Crouch said, and the protests from the students below age were shouting their outrage.

"This decision is final." Crouch finished and stepped back.

"That's not fair."

"That's rubbish!" Loud booing noises were filling the air as the people who were underage vented their disbelief.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore yelled and everyone stopped, it wasn't everyday the benign and smiling headmaster raised his voice.

"I will personally be ensuring that no underage student will be able to hoodwink our impartial judge into making them Hogwart's Champion, therefore please do not waste your time submitting yourself if you are under the age of seventeen." Dumbledore concluded with a serious look on his face.

With that the ancient Headmaster dismissed them and sat down and began murmuring with Moody.

"Harry, you have to enter, we'll win for sure." Roger exclaimed to Harry as the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs began to file out, shoving each other to get out first as always.

Harry didn't dignify his friend's exclamation with a response as he was deep into thought. "Bertha Jorkins' disappearance…The Dark Mark…Mad-Eye's reappearance from retirement…The Triwizard Tournament…I wonder…" However, his speculation was cut off when he heard Cho was calling his name. He looked up and nodded as the Ravenclaw students began filing out. Giving Moody and Dumbledore one last look, he walked out of the Great Hall with a bunch of first years not far from behind him.

Reaching the top of Ravenclaw Tower, the location a closely guarded secret to only those in the House of Intellect. The portrait guarding the entrance to the Common Room asked in a quizzical voice, "I never was, am always to be, No one ever saw me, nor ever will, And yet I am the confidence of all, To live and to breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?"

Without batting an eye, Harry replied "You are tomorrow."

"Correct" With that, the portrait swung open. "As you can see, this house has no real password but different riddles each time one approaches it." Harry said curtly, he really hated this prefect job.

"What happens if we can't answer it?" A first year girl asked.

"Then you stay outside until you answer one correctly." Harry replied dryly and the first years all gulped.

"Don't mind big scary Harry Potter. You could always get inside in groups or just ask Professor Flitwick, his office is just adjacent to the Common Room." Eleanor Zabini, a tall beautiful golden blonde haired young woman with an aristocratic facial structure, a perfect hour glass figure and striking ocean blue eyes said soothingly, while casting a glare that seemed to have no effect whatsoever on her counterpart.

The two prefects then led the first years into the warm, comforting Common Room and after giving them instructions on how to act along with other things, ushered them to the dormitories according to their gender.

"Well well, is the great and almighty Kaiser going to submit his name into the Goblet?" Eleanor teased as she took a seat next to her friend for six years, who was sitting cross-legged deep in thought. She was the only one who had the guts to tease the five-year reigning Dueling Champion.

Harry smirked as he watched the flames in the fireplace flickering brightly. "Maybe…I am curious, have you heard of Bertha Jorkins' disappearance?" Harry inquired.

"Of course, father has been sent out to investigate. Your father too, it seems." Eleanor said. Adrian Zabini and James Potter have been friends even before their Hogwarts days and remained so even if they were sorted into two houses that loathed each other's guts. "I see." Harry said and was surprised when he found Eleanor had crawled onto his lap.

"Ellie, what are you doing?" He barely had time to protest before the beautiful woman on his lap began kissing him and feeling his chest. Her lips was the softest thing he had ever felt in his entire life, their lips moved in perfect synchronization whilst their tongues were battling for dominance. Harry felt the room temperature rising as he heard Eleanor's soft moans but his logic, miraculously rise from the dead and he was able to push the unresistingly gorgeous woman off of him.

"Harry…what's wrong?" Eleanor asked, her lips swollen. Harry didn't answer but stood up.

"I shouldn't have done that….I'm sorry…" With that, he began walking off, leaving a confused and hurt Eleanor alone on the sofas.

"I can't….all women are a distraction and can be used against me. I can't put her through that." Harry thought as he steadied his breathing and changed into a pair of silk pajama pants and a fading T-shirt with the Beatles on it. Covering the sheets over him, he quickly fell asleep.


	3. The Delegates Arrive

Chapter 2: The Delegates Arrive

Days went by and Harry, once again with his emotionless, stern demeanor went back to normal. He didn't see much of Eleanor but thought it would be better for her to take some time out, he cursed himself for worrying about her; it was totally contradictory to his character. He was the Kaiser of Hogwarts, emotions had no uses for him in that role. Apart from that small problem, classes were dull as usual for the prodigy. Harry was often the envy of his peers, he was simply perfect in everything he did, the perfect student and duelist.

"Potions, Merlin I hate that class." Roger complained as the two walked towards the direction of the dungeons. Harry scowled deeply, Severus Snape, the Potion's Master was the scum of the planet in his opinion and should be given the Dementor's Kiss publically. That would be one show he would pay a fortune to watch, the man was nothing but a coward, an insignificant piece of dirt below Harry's boot.

_Two__Years__Ago_

_"__Potter __detention __after __class!__" __Snape __sneered __when __he __saw __Harry__'__s __perfect __Draught __of __Peace __lying __in __front __of __him._

_"__And __pray, __why __should __I __listen __to __you __Death __Eater?__" __The __response __was __calm,__cold,__quiet __as __Harry __stared __straight __into __the __black __eyes __of __Snape __with __intense __hatred. __Immediately __Snape __was __violently __thrown __backwards __into __the __shelves __full __of __cauldrons __and __glass __instruments __with __a __loud __crash. __The __entire __class __was __too __scared __to __move __a __muscle __as __the __Kaiser __of __Hogwarts __walked __calmly __around __the __desk, __with __a __whirl __of __his __fingers, __four __sharp __glass __shards __impaled __themselves __deeply __into __Snape__'__s __arms __and __legs, __not __allowing __any __movement. _

_Everyone __shuddered __as __they __heard __the __painful __screams __and __cringed __as __they __heard __a __crack, __the __girls __all __turned __away __as __Harry __stomped __on __the __Potion__'__s __Master__'__s __face __with __uncontrollable __rage._

_"__One __day__…__it__'__ll __be __your __soul __the __Dementors __will __be __sucking __out,__and __I__'__ll __be __in __the __front __row.__" __Harry __whispered __with __a __cruel __smirk __and __kicked __Snape __in __the __face __one __last __time __before __walking __out __of __the __dungeons __without __a __care __in __the __world._

Harry had sent his message loud and clear, he was going to capture every Death Eater, follower of Voldemort and submit them, the more unwillingly, the better to the kiss of the Dementor. After the event, Dumbledore who was less than pleased by the confrontation and summoned him to his office.

"_What __were __you __thinking __Harry?__" __Dumbledore __yelled __at __him __with __rage. __Harry __made __a __note __to __mark __the __date __as __the __day __Dumbledore __legitimately __raised __his __voice __against __him._

_"__Me? __I __was __just __warning __a __piece __of __useless __filth __to __stay __out __of __my __way.__" __Harry __said __while __crossing __his __legs, __folding __his __arms __and __tilting __his __head __sideways. __Dumbledore __was __speechless, __in __all __of __his __years; __he __had __never __seen __Harry, __which __he __considered __to __be __one __of __his __finest __students __and __a __grandson __to __behave __in __such __a __manner._

_"__Headmaster, __enlighten __me__…__how __did __a __Death__Eater __get __exempt __from __the __Kiss? __As __I __recall, __it __was __you __who __ordered __the __exoneration.__" __Harry __said __smoothly. __Stung by __the __revelation __of __Harry__'__s __knowledge __about __the __trial __regarding __to __Igor __Kakaroff, __Dumbledore __hardened __his __gaze __as __he __knew __Harry __was __an __exceptional __Legillimens __like __himself __and __a __very __powerful __wizard __that __had __the __potential __to __become __the __next __most __powerful __sorcerer in the world._

_"__That__…__is __a __matter __between __myself __and __Professor __Snape.__" __The __ancient __headmaster __said._

_"__Hn__…__no __matter, __I __have __a __hunch __that __the __reason __will __be __borderline __pathetic__… __like __everything __that __he __is.__" __Harry __replied __calmly __while __examining __his __fingernails. __Dumbledore__'__s __hand __twitched __as __fire place __flared __and __two __figures __emerged._

_"__HARRY __JAMES __POTTER!__YOU __EXPLAIN __YOURSELF RIGHT __NOW!__" __Lily __shouted __as __soon __as __she __stepped __out. __James __had __a __look __between __pleased __and __disappointment __which __Harry simply __smirked __at.__Without __looking __at __them, __Harry __simply __waited __until __his __mother __was __finish __ranting __by __going __through __Arithmancy __formulas __in __his __mind._

_"__All __Death __Eaters __deserve __to __rot __in __hell __for __an __eternity, __and __I __will __be __the __one __to __send __them __there.__" __He __said __very __calmly __and __tried __his __best __to __not __smirk __at __the __image._

_"__Violence __will __solve __nothing!__" __Dumbledore __thundered, pacing edgily behind his desk._

_"__Oh __really? __You __really __believe __that. __Sir, __you __believe __people __like __Bellatrix __Lestrange, __Lucius __Malfoy, __Fenrir __Greyback __and __our __dearest __Snivellus __really __deserve __a __second __chance instead of being butchered like the dogs they are?__" __Harry __asked __leaning __forward __in __a __mocking __tone. __Dumbledore stopped pacing and turned towards the black haired teen, he __seemed __to __have __problem __speaking __as __he __digested __the __question._

_"__I __thought__so__…__I __think __we__'__re __done __here.__" __Harry __said __softly __standing __up, __and __without __another __word __walked __towards __the __door, opening it and __closing __it __behind __him._

Harry and Roger took their seats at their favorite desk in the middle of the classroom. He kept a blank face as he heard all the chatter around him, Quidditch, potential boyfriends/girlfriends etc.

"How pathetic…" Harry thought, they would all turn out to be people of insignificance, forgotten quickly; something that Harry did not wanted to take part of. He had long noticed the dysfunctional ways the Wizard World had operated itself in and he was going to change it.

That is why; he had assembled several people for his future team. They weren't necessarily powerful but they were influential. Eleanor Zabini, Roger Davies, Cedric Diggory, Edward Malfoy, Cho Chang were all highly intelligent, powerful in their own unique ways but were all displeased with the current Ministry of Magic and its bigotry. When the Dark Lord returns, they'll be ready to change the world and the rest of the world would have to adapt or fall behind.

As Snape entered, Harry stuck out his foot suddenly and the greasy haired Potion's professor was sent sprawling onto the cold dungeon floor. Nobody dared to laugh as Snape stood up, turning around black eyes met green and at that moment Snape was fearful for his life. Nothing but a promise of eternal pain were etched deeply in the seventeen year old Champion Duelist's eyes, Harry had meant it when he said that he will enjoy watching Snape's getting the Kiss from a Dementor.

Snape would have never thought that there was someone that could surpass James Potter in humiliating him but he could do nothing since the boy was well superior in his magical capabilities.

Luckily for him, the class proceeded normally and no incidents occurred. As the week progressed, Harry noticed that something was off with his former mentor, Mad-Eye Moody.

"Drinking in classes and by the hour too…" Harry mused to himself softly as he surveyed the Black Lake from the edge on a grassy flat plain. His black robes billowing freely behind him, he couldn't help but think that something big was going to happen this year.

Ryan had told him earlier in the day that he was awoken by Longbottom's screams of horror in the middle of the night.

"What're you thinking about?" a soft, feminine voice broke Harry's thoughts as he turned his head sideways and saw Eleanor standing beside him.

"Nothing of importance." Harry retorted emotionlessly and crossed his arms across his chest.

"I've known you since we were in diapers Harry. You can't lie to me." Eleanor replied and giggle at the memory.

Harry scowled lightly but with a sigh said, "I can't help but wonder….if everything is connected."

"What'd you mean?" Eleanor asked.

"Bertha Jorkins' mysterious disappearance…The Dark Mark at the World Cup…Moody's reappearing from his retirement…the Triwizard Tournament." Harry said, his green eyes fixed on the horizon.

"When you say it that way…it sort of does sound like it was all planned." Eleanor said after a moment of reflection.

"But why Moody?" She asked.

"Hnnn…you're losing your touch Ellie." At this, Eleanor slapped her long childhood friend on the shoulder, eliciting a small smile from him. It was so rare to see Harry smile these days, he was always distant, cold, calculating and alienating everyone around him. Eleanor wished that they could return to when they were both five years old, when there was only the two of them. To her, Harry will always be the boy next door, her best friend and even if he was unresponsive, her first love. She wanted her Harry back, the Harry that wasn't so focused on becoming the strongest sorcerer on the planet, the Harry that laughed freely and played with her, the Harry that she loved.

"_Harry?" A nine-year-old Eleanor was sitting in the backyard of Potter Manor with a nine year old Harry. _

_"Yeah?" Harry asked and a look of rare shock appeared on his face when Eleanor suddenly pecked him on the check and turned her face away, blushing furiously._

The memory, still fresh as if it had happened just yesterday, slowly faded in front of her as reality came crashing back down around her.

"Harry?" The king of Ravenclaw turned his head towards sideways in response, his forever glowing green eyes met with Eleanor's own soft blue ones.

"Do you think the world will really change?" Harry took a moment before answering her.

"It will…nothing in the world is permanent. But it won't change if people don't will it."

"Leave it to Harry to be all philosophical." Eleanor thought to herself with a smile.

"A storm is arriving." Harry stated softly out of the blue, his eyes fixed on the horizon once again. Eleanor looked onto the horizon, he was right. A barely hearable sound of thunder broke the silence along with a barely visible bolt of lightning.

"Did you notice anything off with Mad-Eye?" Harry suddenly inquired.

"Apart from constantly drinking in class and suddenly insulting my father, everything is in order." Eleanor stated with a heavy drip of sarcasm in her voice. Harry actually let out a chuckle at that particular remark, Eleanor smiled with him; she had not heard Harry laugh freely after the night when they had heard that the Dark Lord will one day return when they were sneaking down to listen to the grown ups in the living room in Potter Manor.

People didn't really understand why Harry was always delving into books and studying wand theories before and after starting Hogwarts instead of doing things that a child would normally do, everyone except her, that is.

She knew him better than anyone else, save his parents that he wanted to protect his siblings from the raging storm that was on the horizon. Harry, contrary to what people say about him was very loyal towards his younger brother and especially his baby sister, Rose.

"That girl would have serious trouble finding a boy to date." Eleanor mused to herself, Harry and Ryan were both overprotective beyond comprehension when it came to their sister, in addition to James Potter; it was pretty much a lost cause to whomever wished to date the youngest Potter.

Harry saw her chuckling to herself and with a raised eyebrow of amusement, decided to question her about what was so funny and when Eleanor refused to answer, began tickling her mercilessly despite her cries and laughs for mercy. Everything else was forgotten as Eleanor tried her best to fend off Harry's attacks with some of her own, it was if they had returned to that innocent but brief period of peace when they were both children.

Unknowingly to the couple, two pairs of eyes were watching them from behind a bunch of shrubs with a binocular.

"By Merlin, is that my brother and your sister?" A shocked Ryan exclaimed to an equally surprised Blaise Zabini. Blaise was an exact miniature of her big sister, with shoulder length golden blonde hair, beautiful blue sapphire eyes and aristocratic facial features.

"Not surprising, my sister is always talking about your brother. She has it bad for him." Blaise said with a wide smile. Ryan only raised an eyebrow at his close friend's statement, apart from Draco, Blaise was his best and closest friend as long as he could remember.

A sigh escaped the messy black haired fourteen year old, his brother never laughed anymore and was hell bent on driving everyone save his family away from him. Whenever he tried to subtly question him about it, he just repeated the same response "I'm preparing for the storm that will inevitably arrive." Ryan knew that his parents knew the real truth behind it all, and Dumbledore for that matter. His brother was never truly the same after his first training session with Mad-Eye Moody. Based on his lessons with said man, he had a pretty good idea what his brother's training sessions would have been like and man did he not envy him.

"I'm sure. But if my brother felt the same, he would have done something." Ryan replied sarcastically and cringed when Blaise punched him on the shoulder hard. Then after a while, the two younger Potter and Zabini watched as their older siblings walked off back towards the castle.

Ryan was about to follow when Blaise yanked him back down to the floor and with a questioning tone said, "What is that?" Turning to where his friend was staring at, Ryan saw a dark shape moving through the skies. From where they were, it looked like a flying house, then it became clear; the flying object was actually a carriage pulled by Abraxans, large horses with wings.

"The delegates must be arriving today." Blaise said as the two forth years walked back to the castle. Whilst everyone was seething with excitement over the delegates arriving, Harry found himself in his favorite spot on the balcony of the Astronomy Tower with a copy of one of his favorite plays, _Hamlet_ by William Shakespeare in his hands. With him was Fenris, perched on his shoulder who was looking amusedly at his master.

"_Why __do __you __always __read __such __depressing __material?__" _He asked through their mental link.

"_It__'__s __a __classic, __Shakespeare __is __and __will __always __be __immortal __through __his __works. Very impressive.__" _Harry responded while never once taking his eyes off the popular play.

"_Would __you __think __it __is __best __if __you __joined __the __feast __now? __No __doubt __will __there __be __a __fascinating __speech __to __listen __to.__" _Fenris said sarcastically. Harry smirked and after petting the eagle's soft feathery wings, he began his journey to the Great Hall.

* * *

Fleur Delacour wasn't in the best mood as she stepped out of the carriage, her clothes were not best accustomed to the cold climates of Scotland and she shuddered at the thought of more boys ogling her due to her Veela allure. It was bad enough back at her school already. Most women would want to be a Veela but to Fleur, it was more of a curse most of the time.

Men would stare and drool after her, but it was only because of her physical attributes and women would ostracize her simply because they believed that she was stealing their men. That was the main reason why she'd left France to compete in this tournament held in an entirely foreign country, to prove that she was more than a pretty face.

As her headmistress told them all to stand tall and act on their best, she heard footsteps and found herself staring as a tall, fairly looking, messy black haired boy with the greenest eyes she had ever seen walked calmly passed them. He was wearing knee length black leather boots, long, straight fitting black pants that complimented his long dancer like legs, a white button up shirt accompanied with a navy blue tie and a black v-neck sweater. A knee length black robe with a pronounced collar and tightly bound sleeves completed the effect.

She couldn't help but noticed the way he walked, it screamed vigilance and grace, it didn't hit her until he walked pass her did she realize that he didn't once look at her. Many of her female colleagues were giggling as they whispered frantically of how perfect the boy looked. An unknown sensation overwhelmed Fleur's senses as the boy's aura flared up, a beautiful graceful, yet bright silver light surrounded him.

She struggled with herself to control her body and it wasn't until the boy disappeared beyond the door was she able to relax.

"_Fleur __Isabelle __Delacour __checking __a __guy __out__…__the __world __must __be __ending._" Fleur scowled as she turned towards her best and only friend, Claire Fontaine. Claire had short curly chocolate brown hair, large, pixyish matching brown eyes and a good-natured face. Claire was very supportive of her friend knowing that she wasn't at fault with everything that happened around her and Fleur was extremely grateful for it.

"_I __wasn__'__t__…" _Fleur feebly defended herself. "_I __was __just __curious __as __to __why __that __man __didn__'__t __look __at __me __once. __No __one __has __done __that __before.__"_

"_Right, __and __you __weren__'__t __fantasizing __about __having __your __legs wrapped __around __his waist __while __he __ravishes __you.__"_ Claire whispered back. Fleur glared at her but didn't get the last word as their headmistress signaled them to walk into the Great Hall.

Fleur hardened her face as she walked straightly and proudly passed the doors, she noticed that there were four tables each had a different banner above them and a long table that was no doubt the staff table several steps up. She ignored all the ogling and drooling directed at her from the male population as she walked pass, a particular redhead little boy was the worst. She watched with slight amusement as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, who was a somewhat tall and old man with a long white beard getting dwarfed completely by Madame Maxine while he kissed her Headmistress in greeting.

"My dear Madame Maxine," Dumbledore said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxine, in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"Oh excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.

"My pupils," said Madame Maxine, waving a giant hand carelessly behind her. By now, Fleur was shivering against the cold as she covered her face and neck with her baby blue colored scarf. Madame Maxine, after talking with a giant man that was an astounding eight feet tall and three times as wide about the Abraxans, told them to have a seat. Claire dragged Fleur over to the table filled with blue tied students as their peers walked towards the same table. Fleur sat down and gulped when she met the glare from a familiar pair of green eyes.


	4. The Champions

**A.N. Hello everyone, feel free to comment and all ideas for upcoming chapters are welcome. Just a side note, Harry and Fleur's romance won't come for a while so y'all sit tight and bear with me! **

Chapter 3: The Champions

"Hi my name is Claire Fontaine, I was born in France but I have spent most of my childhood in the United States and this is my best friend Fleur Delacour." Claire introduced herself and Fleur, who sent her a glare for being so unsubtle.

"Quit glaring Harry, they're the guests…I'm sorry, I'm Cho, Cho Chang." Cho said while kicking Harry's shin under the table, making him scowl at her, which made her grin even wider. Meanwhile, Harry's mind was already making rapid deductions and calculations as to the weird, slightly irritably feeling that he was feeling as soon as this blonde hair girl decided to sit next to him. Then it hit him a fraction of a second later as he saw the jaw dropping looks and ogling from his male peers directed at the girl situated next to him, the girl had to be part Veela or Siren.

"Interesting." Harry thought as he returned to reading Hamlet while eating rather bland salad.

"You're a Shakespeare fan?" Claire asked as she observed the mysteriously quiet messy black haired boy.

"I think that's quite clear since I am reading _Hamlet_." Harry said sarcastically.

Claire frowned and was about to open her mouth when Cho asked with uncontained excitement followed by a glare to Harry, which he ignored, "How is Beauxbatons…compared to our school?"

"Well it's A LOT warmer." Cho laughed at this. "And we don't have houses, so from what I've been told, there isn't a giving or deducting points system." Claire stated.

Fleur meanwhile was only half listening while staring at the ceiling, which seemed to have no roof with the stormy weather thundering above her. She then focused her attention on the rather good looking young man sitting next to her, he was truly an enigma having had eye contact with her but was not a slobbering drooling idiot. He had paid no attention to the events occurring around him, solely focusing on the play grasped in his longer, slender fingers.

Fleur swore she saw his facial expression relaxing when the students around him began to whisper that the Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum was actually here in the flesh. The Durmstrang students had arrived on an ancient ship that rose from the lake in a stupendous fashion, their headmaster, a medium height man wearing furs was the first to converse with the headmaster of Hogwarts. The same redheaded boy over at the table with many lion badge students who had drooled disgustingly at her was becoming increasingly disturbing with his hungry gaze at the celebrity over at the table with many snake badge students.

Fleur was brought back from her thoughts as she saw the headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore walking towards the intricately decorated podium. Immediately everyone ceased their chatter and focused on the Ancient Headmaster. Well, nearly everyone, Harry was still casually reading his play.

"Your attention please! I would like to say a few words…..Eternal glory, that is what awaits the student who wins the tri-wizard tournament. But to do this that student must survive three tasks. Three extremely dangerous tasks. "Wicked" Two red headed twins from the table with the lion badge students. Fleur continued to stare with determination in her eyes, this was what she came here for, to prove that she was more than a Quarter Veela.

"For this reason the ministry has fit to impose a new rule. To explain all this we have the Head of the Department of International Magic Cooperation Mister Bartemius Crouch and Mr. Ludo Bagman, the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports." Applause was then ensured as two people stood up from the head table and joined Dumbledore at the podium. For the first time during the entire welcoming feast for the foreigners, Harry looked up. There was more applause directed towards Bagman than Crouch, maybe it was because Crouch never smiled nor waved when his name was mentioned. Harry knew better, Crouch was one heartless son of a bitch who had sentenced his own flesh and blood to the dreaded hell of Azkaban.

How did he acquire this information? When Mad-Eye Moody taught him the lesson that even those closest to you could cave in to the darkness. Speaking of Mad-Eye, Harry briefly lingered his eyes on his former mentor, or rather the person impersonating his former mentor.

As time trickled, it became apparently clear that the man sitting on the head table was not Alastor Moody. However, Harry decided that he would not be doing anything until the imposter had made his first move.

"What could he be possibly be planning?... The Death Eaters have resurfaced recently, the Dark Mark fired into the sky…Moody's house being attacked…after telling me many times that being a teacher was the farthest thing he wanted to do after retirement…" The possibilities were numerous and Harry was already deep into calculating the chances of each one, ignoring murmurings of discontent from younger students around him that were outraged by the age limitations.

"I guess…the only way of finding out will be entering myself into this competition, something big is definitely at hand." Harry thought to himself as a box that was brought by two men was placed on a stand next to Dumbledore, one was vaguely familiar with messy black hair and lopsided glasses whilst the other had short scruffy black hair and a handsome boyish face despite his age. Harry's eyes widened as he saw his father and his godfather Sirius Black with matching large grins directed to him. Standing to the side with a rather lean, tall yet stern woman with shoulder length blonde hair, whom Harry recognized at once as Amelia Bones.

"What are dad and Sirius doing here? He should only be returning from his honeymoon with Professor Vector at this hour?" Harry thought to himself. At the Gryffindor table, Ryan's jaw dropped when he saw his father and chuckled when he saw the same shocked expression on his elder brother's face from the Ravenclaw Table.

He had observed his brother's behavior from the start of the feast and found it rather entertaining to see him not noticing the inhumanely beautiful blonde haired girl from the French school sitting next to him.

"Who else but Harry would fail to notice such a girl is sitting next to him?" He chuckled at the thought but returned his attention back at Dumbledore as he tapped the box with his wand, the box melted away, leaving an insignificant wooden cup. It would have been unremarkable save the fact that dancing blue white flames filled to the brim, eliciting awed looks from students from all three schools.

"The Goblet of Fire. Anyone wishing to submit themselves for the tournament merely write their name upon a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night. Do not do so lightly, if chosen there's no turning back. As from this moment the tri-wizard tournament has begun." Dumbledore warned with a severe warning glare at everyone in the Great Hall then bade the students good night with a dismissive wave.

Meanwhile Fleur couldn't help but overhearing several Hogwarts students not faraway speaking excitedly,

"Oy, who'd you think will be chosen?" A boy asked.

"My money's on Kaiser." His friend answered.

"Definitely, Kaiser has never lost a duel before. He'll be our champion for sure!"

"Exciting isn't it?" Cho literally was bouncing up and down on her seat.

"Is it true that Harry has never lost a duel before?" Claire asked amidst all the rumors.

"None that I know, I do remember the time when he took out five thugs once while shopping in Diagon Alley with Eleanor once two years ago." Cho said with a shrug.

"Why did zis event 'appen in ze first place?" Fleur asked out of curiosity.

"Eleanor's father supposedly upset someone when he arrested certain people with shades of background." Cho answered biting her lip and with a pointed index finger said, "There they are…don't they look adorable? Its actually a surprise that they're not married yet…seeing how close they are to each other." True to her point Fleur observed, Harry was actually not emotionless and actually allowed a barely visible smile at something the tall shoulder length blonde hair, cerulean colored eyed beauty said as they approached the head table.

"You like him don't you?" Claire asked once seeing the sad smile on Cho's face.

"…It's not that hard to fall for him, despite the fact that Harry always tries to be cold and distant…he helped me a lot with dealing with some of my peers who had problems with my family background, helped me whenever I had problems with homework, studying or was just there when I needed someone to listen…but enough of that, we better get going." And the three stood up and began to file out of the Great Hall, Fleur turned around at the entrance and took one last look at the green eyed man that intrigued her greatly before gracefully walking back towards the carriages with the rest of her contingent.

* * *

"Ah, the Champion of Hogwarts graces us with his presence." Sirius said with a mock bow as soon as all the students have filed out of the Great Hall, earning a glare from Harry and a muffled giggle from Eleanor.

"About time you came back, how was the honeymoon with Professor Vector." Harry asked with the slightest bit of mirth in his eyes.

"Now that information, little pup, is confidential." Sirius replied with a large grin.

"Yes, yes, Uncle Padfoot never ceases to deliver…" Harry said sarcastically.

Sirius' ears turned red as James chuckled rather loudly at his best friend's embarrassment. Sirius was about to grab Harry into a knuckle sandwich despite the fact that his godson was over six foot tall and with a flick of his wand, too fast to be seen turned Sirius found his hair had turned bright pink and his auror robes a matching tight pink cocktail dress.

James and Ryan stared for a full five seconds before falling and rolling on the floor roaring with laughter while Eleanor smiled at the sight.

"Hmm…Professor Vector must have really exhausted you for such a degeneration in reflexes." Harry said with a more pronounced smile hanging from the edge of his lips.

"Hahaha…very funny, Mr. Unprankable, reverse it NOW!" Sirius gritted through his teeth and sighed in relief as his hair returned to its natural dark brown color and he was once again wearing Auror Robes.

"Mr. Potter?" Eleanor asked after James and Ryan were back on their feet from laughing so hard.

"Yes, cutie pie?" James asked. Eleanor blushed deeply at the nickname her father and Harry's father had for her, her father and Mr. Potter always insisted on calling her that which frankly annoyed her greatly, it was alright to be called a cutie pie when she was five years old but seventeen?

"Is my father alright?" Eleanor asked and a large sigh of relief escaped her breath when James nodded.

"Did you find Bertha Jorkins?" Harry asked, with his arms crossed all jokes aside. His father shook his head and said tiredly, "We've searched her last known location in Albania but the tracks stop there and the forest is just….well too large and dangerous for only two Aurors to venture in."

Sirius snorted as he voiced his opinion, "Jorkins, not bright and always nosing into other people's business...the perfect recipe for disaster."

"So…going to enter your name?" Sirius asked back into his joking mood and his smile actually disappeared when he saw his godson nod.

"Oh boy…your mother will have my head displayed on a platter when she hears about this…" James groaned into his palms, Ryan just had a look of awe plastered on his face.

"Harry?" Harry turned to Eleanor, who looked extremely worried. "People have died in this competition…"

"I'm not going after the glory Ellie…something much larger is at work here."

"What'd you mean?" James asked, puzzled by his son's reason.

"Everything that happened this year, dad…don't you think its too much of a coincidence, Jorkin's disappearance…The Death Eaters and the Dark Mark at the World Cup…The disturbance call from Moody's house…now this tournament which hasn't been done in hundreds of years." Harry said.

"It is strange how Albus decided to restart the Triwizard Tournament…it certainly caused a bit of uproar in the Wizegamot…and Jorkins did have knowledge that the tournament would be played this year, if she was captured…." James did not need to continue for everyone had a clear idea where he was heading to.

"Mr. Potter, there is also the issue of Professor "Moody." Eleanor said after a lapse of silence.

"Yeah dad, don't you think its strange Mad-Eye is eying Longbottom most of the time?" Ryan asked and explained how he felt the former dark wizard catcher was trying to get closer to the-Boy-Who-Lived, many times would the former Auror tell Longbottom to stay behind after class had ended.

"And another thing Eleanor and I have discovered…it would seem Mad-Eye now drinks around the hour." Harry mused.

"It seems we have an imposter on our hands…" Every head in the deserted Great Hall turned towards the grandfatherly voice. Blue eyes twinkling madly, Albus Dumbledore walked calmly towards the group after escorting Madam Bones out the Great Hall earlier.

"My congratulations once again for you and Elizabeth, Sirius." Dumbledore said, shaking the Grim-Animagus' hand.

"You knew all alone then Professor." Harry stated, few things ever escaped Dumbledore's eyes despite his rather barmy and sometimes odd behaviors.

"Harry please…Alastor and I have been friends for many years, I believe that I would notice the slightest change if it did occur." Dumbledore simply said.

"So what's the plan?" Sirius asked.

"We wait for the imposter's first move." Harry simply said. Ryan looked at him as if he was crazy,

"Why? I say we go storming into the motherfucker's office and beat the shit out of him." He said animatedly.

"I warned you dad, about leaving Hollywood gangster movies out in the open." Harry said with a shake of his head and turned to his brother. "Please, even if we did barge into the imposter's office and forced him to tell us the truth about the plot behind the shadows with Veriterserum… how would it benefit us? I'm pretty sure the mastermind behind this is a lot more cunning than we'd expect. He would have a back up plan ready in case his little pet was compromised." No one could argue with Harry's logic when it was explained.

"Quite an excellent deduction Harry, couldn't have worded it myself." Dumbledore said softly, Neville Longbottom might be the Boy Who Lived and had great potential but Harry Potter remains the strongest wizard of his generation. The boy was simply different from all other children of his age during their first encounter.

_A much younger Albus Dumbledore appeared from the floo into Potter manor to spread the news to James and Lily Potter that Voldemort has been vanquished. _

_"Albus, is it true?" James Potter rushed out from the kitchen, "Is he gone?" "It would seem that the sacrifice made by young Neville's mother has rendered Voldemort the inability to finish the boy off." Dumbledore explained while pacing around in front of the fireplace. _

_"That poor boy…what will happen now?" Lily Potter asked as she too came out of the kitchen to join her husband. "They boy will be placed in the custody of his grandmother…he will be taken care of." Dumbledore answered. Lily sighed in relief at her former headmaster's words. _

_"You will both come to the meeting tomorrow?" Dumbledore asked. _

_"Of course Albus, you can count on it." James replied with a nod. _

_With a nod, the headmaster of Hogwarts was about to step in the floo when a young, childish voice broke the silence, "Sir, will he be back?" He slowly turned around and found himself in a staring contest with a four-year-old boy that had messy black hair and the brightest, glowing green eyes that were clearly inherited from his mother. On his back was his one year old brother, looking curiously at Dumbledore, a wave of nostalgia slammed into Albus as he remembered a familiar scene from a memory long ago, a boy with his younger brother watching beside him as their father was being carted off by Aurors. _

_Lily wrapped her arms protectively around both her boys. __He shrugged the painful memory away and in a soft tired voice answered, "Take care of your brother, Harry…dangerous times lie ahead…" With that Dumbledore stepped into the fireplace and disappeared with a flash of green flames._

"It is getting late, I suggest getting some sleep Harry, Ms. Zabini, Ryan…" Dumbledore said, signaling the end of the conversation.

"Night Professor." Harry said respectfully and left after biding his father and Sirius a farewell, Eleanor and Ryan after him.

"Think you can manage going back on your own?" Harry teased Ryan as they parted their ways to their respective common rooms.

"Harry, I'm fourteen." Ryan gritted through his teeth, Harry nodded with a rare joking smile and headed off towards Ravenclaw Tower with Eleanor.

On the way to their destination, Harry cringed when he felt Eleanor's slender arm entwined around his and her head resting on his arm.

"Ellie-"

"Shh…please don't say anything." Eleanor whispered as they entered their common room.

"It's rather late…I'll see you in the mourning." Harry said as he started to walking towards the boy's dormitories but stopped when he felt arms wrapped around his middle and added weight on his back.

"Ellie…please, we cannot be…" Harry whispered.

"Why? You have feelings for me Harry, I'm not stupid…I've seen the way you look at me, you want me." Eleanor said through her tears. Defiantly but tenderly, Harry released himself from her arms and turned to face her, it hurt to see Eleanor in tears.

"Why, why are you denying yourself when I'm willing to give it to you?" Eleanor continued, tears flying down from her eyes as she took off her robe and her sweater in a frantic manner. Harry, knowing what she was doing immediately wrenched her arms away from her own clothing and pulled her into an embrace. Eleanor struggled in his grasp but eventually stopped and simply sobbed onto his chest.

"Damn it…why are women always after me?" He thought to himself tiredly, taking care of his baby brother and sister was always his number one priority and man was it a large full time one. However, such was the job of being the eldest but he had no qualms about it.

"Ellie…I can't place myself in a relationship right now alright? I just can't…" Harry whispered softly, his green eyes filled with sincerity.

"I understand…" Eleanor said as she retracted her head from Harry's chest, her dark ocean blue eyes red from crying. To him, she was still perfect, still so beautiful even in her current state.

"Someday…maybe one day. When this storm has passed for good." Eleanor met his gaze at the soft sentence spoken. There was no need for further words, she knew in a certain extent, Harry cared for her; that was all that mattered.

"Harry?" Eleanor asked shyly, avoiding Harry's eyes

"Hmm?" Harry asked.

"Stay with me tonight?...It gets awfully lonely in the dorms sometimes."

"Out here in the Common Room?" Harry asked, eyes wide. They grew even wider when he saw Eleanor with a wave of her wand, transfigured her uniform into a white tank top that accentuated her curves quite well as well as blue colored shorts, if you can even classify the tight shorts that stopped at Eleanor's mid thigh as such, revealing her long slender legs that seemed to travel down for a while.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Potter? Stand down!" Harry's logical voice inside his mind yelled and with a shake of his head, trashed all unclean thoughts away, he might be a master Occlumens but Harry was still human and could be surprised.

After transfiguring his school clothes into a plain black t-shirt and long, comfortable black pants, he pointed his wand at the dark blue sofas, "_Engorgio." _

Immediately the sofa began to increase in size, Harry held the spell until it was deem satisfactory to be slept on by two people.

"You know people will talk…" Harry said, desperately trying to get out of the sticky situation, it was really getting uncomfortable.

"It's our last year. Let them talk." Eleanor said, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"Minx, you're really not helping me here." Harry thought quietly to himself as he watched Eleanor staring back at him on the enlarged sofa, her head supported by her hand through her elbow. He smiled lightly as he joined her, conjuring sheets and blankets pulling over the both of them.

"Goodnight Harry…don't even try anything." Eleanor warned but she had an elated smile on her face. Harry snorted and with a swish of his wand, the lights were all turned off in the common room, leaving the flickering fireplace the only source of light. Harry turned his head and couldn't help but smile when he saw Eleanor sleeping with a happy, carefree smile graced on the edge of her lips. However he steeled himself as the conversation with Dumbledore not long ago replayed itself in his mind. The storm was nearing ever closer, and judging by Longbottom's performance from Ryan, the boy wasn't anywhere near his level of magic in terms of advancement so how could he face the maelstrom that was about to arrive? It was with that question that lulled Harry slowly towards the realm of Morpheus.

* * *

Amidst the darkness a dull clunk echoed through the empty hallway leading to the Great Hall. The storm had provided him with a great cover, as he pushed the doors, an eerie blue glow making the numerous scars on his face even more prominent.

Closing the door behind him, the imposter of Mad-Eye Moody walked towards the Goblet of Fire, which was still flickering brightly with a crazed smile on his scarred face. In his hand was a torn piece of paper with a scribbled name written on it.

* * *

Next mourning, Harry was woken up by squeals of

"Oh, look at them!"

"They're soooo cute!"

"I'm so jealous!"

With gritted teeth, Harry opened his eyes, apparently sometime during the night Eleanor decided to cuddle up close to him for warmth and left him in a rather embarrassing position. Getting up and standing to his full height, with a cold glare that immediately shook his fellow housemates from their stupor and returned back to their business.

With a whirl of his wand his sleeping clothes were transfigured back into his uniform, which felt like it was washed, dried and ironed. Satisfied he silently cast a mild cleaning charm on his teeth, leaving a very minty taste in his mouth.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Eleanor doing the same and he couldn't help but stare at her gorgeous long slender legs.

"I'll…meet you at breakfast." Harry said, not knowing what he could say at this particular moment. With a nod, he started towards the portrait that guarded Ravenclaw Tower, the rest of the house moving out of his way as he did so.

Eleanor watched as it opened and closed behind him and sighed tiredly when she heard the familiar footsteps of her friend scrambling down.

"Oh my God, Elle did you sleep next to Harry for the entire night? Are you two together?" A large eyed and shocked Cho Chang asked frantically as she came over and watched her friend straightening her long blonde hair with a brush. She was stunned when her friend merely gave her a smile but it never reached her eyes.

"Yes we did Cho, and please would you mind lowering your voice before the entire castle knows what happened?" Cho immediately covered her mouth as she followed her closer friend out the portrait for breakfast.

"So was he good?" Eleanor nearly missed a step at the question as she walked down the stairs.

"We did nothing of sort!" She hissed but the Asian girl remained smiling. Luckily, Cho knew when to stop stomping on her best friend's buttons and an eruption from Mt. Eleanor was averted.

Around midday though, the gossip of Harry and Eleanor had pretty much been spread evenly around the castle but it didn't stop the two from their routine.

"I would suggest if you value that tongue of yours, to quit adding your two knuts into my personal life." Harry gritted irritably to his younger brother as Ryan teased him on his morning escapee on their way towards the Great Hall so that Harry could enter his name into the Goblet.

The weather was chaotic, with rapid rain pouring down ruthlessly, as the two Potters arrived at the Great Hall, all eyes were turned towards the taller of the two. Loud whisperings began to start as Harry walked confidently towards the Goblet, its flue flames flickering brightly with a circular yet barely visible white line drawn around it.

"See, told you Potter's going to put his name into the goblet."

"Hogwarts will win for sure!"

"Lucky Sod…I wish I was seventeen."

The whispers stopped as everybody watched the champion duelist placed a dragon hide clad boot inside the age line. Harry remained emotionless as he stepped inside the age line and taking out the piece of parchment with his name inscribed on it, promptly placed it into the flames.

The blue flames fluttered violently for a moment before returning to its normal flickering state. With a smirk, Harry walked away from the Goblet, giving his fellow Ravenclaws a polite smile. His smile disappeared as the doors to the Great Hall opened again, Viktor Krum and his headmaster Igor Kakaroff was strolling towards the Goblet in a way that can only be described as stone faced.

Ryan watched tensely as his brother glared straightly into Krum's eyes, he had seen that only a handful of times: when his brother recognized a rival he simply had to best. The intense moment was over as soon as Krum walked passed Harry's shoulders, a band of fan girls following "discreetly" after the Bulgarian.

"He's going to be champion for Durmstrang...I bet my entire fortune." Harry and Ryan turned towards the silky voice, which belonged to one Edward Malfoy.

"Malfoy…" Harry inclined respectfully, though they did play together as toddlers, calling Edward by his first name wasn't something he'll ever do.

"Nice job with Zabini, although it took longer than I at first thought it would take." Edward said and smirked in a rather haughty manner when he saw his friend's eyes twitch.

"How would you know Krum would become the champion for Durmstrang?" Ryan asked, attempting to steer the conversation in another direction.

"Simple pipsqueak." Ryan's face reddened at the name. "Malfoy intuition…never fails. Watch yourself Potter, those Durmstrang…nasty business they are." Edward said with a laugh as he walked away.

"I'm not small, I'm five foot eight." Ryan complained to his brother who looked very amused and excused himself. Truth be told, he wasn't short but standing next to Harry made him feel like a dwarf.

Ryan went over to the table where Hermione, Draco and Blaise were sitting. "Better watch yourself Hermione, Krum's fan girls weren't all that pleased when he talked to you in the library." Blaise said.

"It's not my fault, honestly, maybe they should actually try talking to him rather than hiding behind bookshelves." The bushy haired witch replied.

"Enough on Krum, I feel like I'm going to puke." Draco interrupted, faking a gagging noise, making Blaise and Hermione laugh.

"Awh, is little witty bitty Drakey jealous? I'm surprised you of all people haven't started worshipping the feet of Krum." Blaise teased, Draco Malfoy was the seeker of Slytherin House.

"Please Blaise, first of all, unlike Weasley, I am not into men. Second of all, a Malfoy is never below anyone else." Draco replied, it was frightening how similar Edward and Draco had the same smirk that had haughtiness labeled all over it.

"Hmm…narcissistic much?" Blaise stated with mirth in her cerulean blue eyes. "Though I have to admit, Weasley does seem to be playing for the other team hmm…" All four of them shuddered as they processed the sentence as they looked at said redhead, unlike Neville Longbottom who was staring intently at the Goblet, was staring agape at the Bulgarian seeker who was walking towards the entrance to the Great Hall.

"On another subject, did your brother place his name into the goblet?" Ryan asked Draco, who shook his head solemnly.

"I heard that French girl, Delacour entered her name." Blaise piped in.

"Honestly, I don't see why people are fussing over her." Hermione started and her eyes narrowed when she heard Draco muttering something in Ryan's ear.

"Well, we're not affected." Ryan said with a boyish smile which caused Hermione to duck her head, such was the effect of the Potter charm.

* * *

The next day was hectic for everyone in the castle, foreigner or not. In addition to classes, the announcement of the three champions would be decided after the Halloween feast.

Fleur Delacour opened the carriage doors of the Beauxbatons Carriage with large butterflies fluttering in her stomach and shivered at the coldness. She was walking towards the entrance hall of Hogwarts when she saw her enigma, Harry Potter dressed in long skinny black pants, a white button up shirt, narrow long blue tie with a black vest and trench coat to top it off. He was walking towards the direction of the lake with something carried on his shoulder.

Fleur was silently debating whether to follow him or meet up with Claire. Simply said, her curiosity got the better of her as she mentally apologized to her friend and walked off quietly after the black haired wizard. She trailed him towards a clearing just the edge of the black lake where she found him sitting on a large boulder and what seemed to be a guitar case lying on the beside him. A quick tempo Spanish tune then filled the air and Fleur found herself mesmerized. For as long as she could remember, she loved dancing and classical music in general.

"Why does he play alone? He's very talented…" Fleur pondered as she watched on, the man sitting not far from her never ceased to spark her curiosity, like an endless puzzle.

"You know…it's not very polite to gawk…you of all people should know this Ms. Delacour." Fleur gave a start as Harry's soft and calm tone pierce the air. Harry tilted his head sideways and glowing green eyes met icy blue, he was still strumming lightly.

Fleur felt her face flush, she had been played the entire time. " 'Ow did you know zat I was following you?" She asked as she neared him.

But to her disappointment, he only gave a highly amused smirk and returned his focus onto the lake. Harry did not react whatsoever as the quarter veela took a seat next to him on the boulder. Truth be told, he easily detected her aura, no matter how little of it she wished to project.

"Why do you play alone 'ere when zere are many people zat would appreciate your talents in ze castle?" Fleur asked. The tune stopped abruptly as Harry's fingers stopped.

"Curious one aren't you…" He said softly and Fleur wondered if she had crossed the line. "Hmmph…the reason is because I am first and foremost, not an entertainer." Harry replied.

"Zen who do you play for?" Fleur asked. Harry had to give her credit when he locked eye contact with her, so few people had the courage to stare into his eyes.

"Awfully persistent aren't you?" Harry said and was about to add more when suddenly a large bird of prey suddenly descended with immense speed on the pair. Fleur was about to whip out her wand when the bird calmly landed on Harry's shoulder and to her surprise, pecked his ear gently.

"It would appear that it is time to gather in the Great Hall." Harry said with a sigh as he placed the guitar back into its case and began trekking back into the castle.

"_No news regarding to One-Eye and no movements around the perimeters of the castle. On another note t__hat one seems to be interested in you. Should the other blonde haired female be worried?" _Fenris stated through their mental link, while looking Fleur who was walking several paces behind Harry.

"_Oh please, not you too? Whatever, go back up to the Owlery and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary." _Fenris squawked at the command and took off. As Harry and Fleur neared the Entrance hall, a fair amount of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were also present.

"_Fleur!_" Fleur cringed at the shout and had to glare when she saw Claire giving a big wave in her direction at the entrance.

"_Fleur, where'd you go? I thought we were going to meet up in the Library._" Claire said with a pout but seeing her friend staring at someone, she turned and found the target who was disappearing into the Great Hall. "_Oh, I see…well I certainly don't blame you for ditching me in exchange for that hunk_."

"_Enough! I was merely curious." _Fleur defended herself feebly as the two entered the Great Hall. The Halloween feast seemed to last an eternity for Harry, as observed the impatience of his fellow schoolmates around him directed at Dumbledore to hurry up.

At last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state and Dumbledore stood up, Karkaroff and Madame Maxine on either side of him. Bagman was beaming and winking at various students like an idiot, Crouch was indifferent as always.

"Well , the Goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask the please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table and go through into the next chamber." He indicated the door behind the staff table which led to the trophy room. Then his hand sweeping across the Great Hall, the candles were all extinguished. Leaving the Goblet of Fire the only source of light, the sparkling bright bluey-whitness of the flames almost painful to the eyes. Dumbledore placed both palms on the sides of the wooden goblet before releasing them and suddenly the flames inside the Goblet turned suddenly red, sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it, eliciting gasps from the whole room. Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length.

"The Durmstrang Champion is." He read, in a strong clear voice. "Viktor Krum!" Harry watched as a storm of applause and cheering swept the hall, his eyes narrowed as he saw Krum rise from the Slytherin table and after a handshake with Dumbledore turned right, walked along the staff table and disappeared through the door into the next chamber. The chatting and clapping died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the Goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more.

A second piece of parchment shout out of it, "The Champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!" Again loud applause and cheering, mostly from the male students could be heard. Fleur got gracefully to her feet and seemingly floated towards Dumbledore.

As she walked confidently, her eyes met with Harry's. He gave her a polite smile before returning his attention to the flaming cup. After shaking hands with the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Fleur vanished into the side chamber.

The climax had arrived, the deciding of Hogwarts champion. All the Ravenclaws were looking intently at their Kaiser whilst the Hufflepuffs were looking in the same manner at Cedric Diggory. The Goblet of Fire turned red once more, sparks showered out of it propelling the third piece of parchment into Dumbledore's waiting hand.

"The Hogwarts Champion," he called while meeting Harry's eye, "is Harry Potter!"

"No!" cried out a voice but it was engulfed by the deafening, ear-splitting cries of joy, shouts and applause coming from the House of Ravens. Harry stood up from his place and promptly walked towards Dumbledore, he gave Roger and Cho a high five each and Eleanor a squeeze on the shoulder as he walked pass them.

Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling madly as he smiled proudly while shaking his star student's hand. He gestured towards the trophy room and Harry walked off after a nod. The cheers were still going on madly as he neared the trophy room, Professor Flitwick was literally bouncing up and down from joy at the sight of his star pupil being chosen as champion, Professor McGonagall offered him a smile, and Professor Vector or should it be Professor Black gave him a strangling hug.

"Now the hard part…" Harry thought as the door of the trophy room closed behind him.

**Read and Review please, suggestions for future chapters are welcomed!**


	5. The Weighing of the Wands

**A.N.- A belated Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year to you all, I hope everyone's had a restful break. I really don't have much time writing with is irritating, homework is taking much of my time as is playing Skyrim. Curses on my friends who nagged me into playing it. **

**Chapter 4: Weighing of the Wands**

Harry strolled casually through the narrow staircase descending into Hogwart's Trophy Room. He smirked when he passed his five champion duelist medals, some people might find it unbelievable that he became the best duelist at Hogwarts at age twelve but the truth was sitting in the long medal cabinet.

"Underestimating your opponent…is there any bigger flaw a person can make?" He asked himself as he walked, there wasn't any particular trick he had that allowed him to win.

"Just observation, respect and being faster." The tall black messy haired young man thought as he arrived at the bottom of the room. More cabinets filled with trophies and all sorts of honors were on display.

" 'Arry!" Harry gave Fleur a barely visible smile and a nod of acknowledgement before observing one particular cabinet, which held several golden shields with many different names engraved on them, each from a different time. He did not see the hurt expression on Fleur's face for being ignored nor did he pay attention to Viktor Krum's brooding at a corner of the room and pacing around.

"The Special Award for Services to the School." Harry silently thought. "Reserved only for a few." He saw one shield with his own name engraved on it, as well as two others that had the names Ryan Potter and surprisingly, Ronald Weasley engraved on them. The fourth and last had the name Tom Marvolo Riddle inscribed on it. Immediately, a foul stench of a combination of rotting carcass and underground sewers filled his nose.

Closing his eyes, Harry could still hear the hissing sounds and picture the gapping jaw filled with serrated steak knife teeth, each one glazed with poisonous venom. And finally, large yellow eyes that could kill a man at where he stood. It had been two years since the incident regarding the Chamber of Secrets and the monster that lurked inside.

He still blamed Ryan for dragging him into the mess, his brother, being the Gryffindor that he was, decided to play hero and teamed up with Longbottom and Weasley to recover the Weasley girl. As with any older brother, Harry shadowed the trio of second years. He knew that the Chamber entrance was located on the second floor, in the bathroom haunted by the ghost of a dead girl.

But knowing the location was useless if it cannot be activated correctly, in this case it was the language of Parseltongue. Salazar Slytherin would most likely seal his chamber with his unique gift, which Harry had to admit was ingenious.

Longbottom had demonstrated speaking to Parseltongue in a Dueling Club when Theodore Nott conjured a snake against him, which sent many whispers that the Boy Who Lived was actually the Heir of Slytherin. It was no relevance to Harry, rumors were just theories lacking any real facts.

"_Lumos" Harry whispered loudly and smiled as a giant orb of light flew out of the tip of his wand, illuminating the dark and dank tunnel. He felt his spine tingle as the light revealed the numerous animal skeletons that carpet the floor. _

_He rounded a bend, hoping that Ryan was still alive. He paused and held his breath as he saw the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving. Poisonous green and twenty feet long at least was snake skin. Next to it was a redhead, digging away at rocks that blocked the way to the chamber. Furthermore their Defense teacher and fraud, Gilderoy Lockhart, who had his usual gleaming smile plastered on his face was sitting oddly on the floor. _

_"Weasley. Where is my brother?" Harry asked hurriedly and he could tell that the redhead jumped and landed on his rear, and gulped. Not meeting his piercing glare, Ronald Weasley stuttered. _

_"They went on but when the git here tried to obliviated them, the spell backlash and caused the ceiling to give in." _

_Raising an amused eyebrow, Harry whipped out his wand and eyeing the caved in rock barrier before him, waved and pointed the tip at the rocks and cried, "Bombarda Maximus!" _

Harry was shaken out of his memories, when he heard footsteps descending down the stairs. Turning his head sideways slightly, he saw Neville Longbottom standing unsurely at the base of the steps.

"So it begins…" He thought as he returned his attention towards Tom Marvolo Riddle's special service award.

* * *

Meanwhile Neville's mind was going haywire, his name had just shot out of the goblet. It had to be a bad joke, he didn't want eternal glory nor wealth. He was fine just the way he was.

"What is eet?" The pale blonde French champion asked. "Do zey want us in ze 'all?"

Even Krum had left his brooding and was standing a short distance away from his Beauxbatons counterpart. Neville seemed to have lost his voice suddenly, he wanted to shake his head but the muscles in his neck seem to have hardened into rock.

Footsteps, more numerous and rapidly could be heard descending down the stairs, at the head was Ludo Bagman with his usual boyish smile etched on his face, eyes beaming.

"Extraordinary!" Bagman exclaimed as he took Neville's arm, "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen…lady, may I introduce – incredible though it may seem – the fourth Triwizard Champion!"

Fleur smiled at the attempted joke. "Oh vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman." She said with a slight laugh.

"Joke?" Bagman asked. "No, not at all! Neville's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!" Fleur could hardly believe what she was hearing, Madame Maxine had warned her and her peers that people have died in this tournament.

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said disparagingly to Bagman. " 'E cannot compete. 'E is too young."

At this, the rest of the contingent of professors and several ministry officials has arrived including Dumbledore, Madame Maxine, Karkaroff, an older woman with a stern expression on her face, and a greasy haired man. Harry listened with amusement as Fleur began to protest to her Headmistress.

"Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

This proved to be the catalyst of a long argument between the Heads of the Schools and the judges. When asked directly, Neville denied putting his name into the Goblet. Harry casually flicked his lucky silver sickle up and down the air.

"I demand we each be allowed two champions!" Karkaroff bellowed. "Otherwise we are withdrawing from the tournament."

"For a person with an impending death warrant hanging over his head, you sure have a hell lot of time to request demands." Harry said softly, a mixture of sarcasm and a sense of danger in his tone, turning his head from Riddle's Special Service Award to the crowd.

"You dare!" Karkaroff was livid, his face turned purple when Harry met his eye.

"I wonder, what will dear Tom do with you. Naming names of his followers instead of rotting in Azkaban as you deserved…Mulciber…Rookwood…Rosier, too bad he's dead… so is Junior…" Karkaroff's face was now white as snow.

At the same moment, Moody's imposter clenched his staff rather tightly with pale, bloodless hands, a reaction that Dumbledore and Harry did not miss; nor did the two accomplished Legilimens missed Barty Crouch's sudden twitch that occurred at the edge of the Head of the Department of International Cooperation's mouth.

"Enough Harry!" Dumbledore warned his star student whom merely gave a cold yet anticipating smile at the clearly shaken Durmstrang Headmaster, which then focused on Hogwart's Potions Professor.

The heads of the school and the judges talked a bit more, inevitably it ended with Barty Crouch, suddenly looking much older than he already was, claiming in a tired voice.

"The Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract. He has no choice." Looking at Neville, "As of this moment, Mr. Longbottom is…a Triwizard Champion."

All the Head of Schools and judges turned towards said champion. Neville just stood there, it seemed that he wasn't breathing one bit.

* * *

One by one, the respective Head of School escorted their champions after being briefed lightly on the First Task, Fleur felt some unfamiliar sadness when she saw Harry walking up the stairs towards the Great Hall after whispering something to Dumbledore without so much as looking at her.

She didn't know why she wanted him to look at her, to admire her; perhaps that was the expectation of the attitude all men she had dated before rubbing on her. Feeling a bit miserable, she allowed her Headmistress to steer her up the stairs.

Dumbledore and Neville were soon the only two left in the room, "Off you go Neville, your housemates are likely waiting for you lets not give them any reason to not party." Dumbledore said as he clapped the fourteen year olds' shoulder and squeezed gently before walking off.

Harry was already present at his office when the ancient Headmaster of Hogwarts walked into his office, sitting cross-legged in a chair directly in front of his desk, hands clasped together. Fawkes the phoenix was enjoying the attention he got from Harry's fingers as the wizard stroked his feathers.

"Crouch Junior…I'm 99.9% sure that it's the imposter's real identity." Harry said as he watched Dumbledore walking past him towards his comfortable chair behind his desk.

"No doubt you have seen the imposter's grip tightening on Alastor's staff?" Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling madly when Harry nodded.

"I never thought this could happen…it was a possibility but surprised nevertheless" The Headmaster of Hogwarts said more to himself, rubbing his temple.

"Politics, how tiresome eh?" Harry said with a smirk.

"More than you know Harry…more than you know." Dumbledore said with a throaty laugh. The door to Dumbledore's office was opened, revealing Professors McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick and 'Moody'.

"I'm sure the Ravenclaws are all waiting for you, especially one Ms. Zabini…" Dumbledore said with a wink. Harry, recognizing a dismissal whenever he saw one, stood up from his chair and nodded farewell.

Harry was in deep thought as he proceeded towards Ravenclaw Tower, "Entering Longbottom unknowingly into the Triwizard Tournament? Hopefully that the trials would eventually kill him off? No, if that were the case, Crouch Junior could have done that all by himself. Why then?" The question lingered deeply in his mind as he the portrait guarding the common room swung open.

Cheers and screams of congratulations, which he politely acknowledges, immediately greeted him.

"Carry on…" Harry said and promptly walked off towards the boy's dormitories ignoring the shocked faces of his housemates.

Before he took another step however, Harry turned around and said with a warning glare, "I know what you are all thinking about, that Longbottom must have cheated his way into the Tournament." He paused a bit, eyes narrowing. "But in truth, Longbottom does not even know the incantation for a Confounding Charm…we are Ravenclaws are we not?"

All his housemates, from first year to seventh nodded.

Harry tilted his head sideways a tad and with clear sarcasm continued, "Then use your heads instead of acting like a bunch of Gryffindors." With that he ascended the stairs leaving utter quietness hanging in the air.

After a while, the party resumed even more loudly than before. Harry meanwhile in his dormitory already had taken off his robes, V- neck sweater and tie off, leaving his white button up shirt on. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Harry opened the case that held his guitar and began strumming very softly.

He closed his eyes as his fingers danced, until when he felt extra weight on his left shoulder, he fingers stopped. Opening his eyes and turning his head leftwards, he allowed himself a small smile.

"Why have you stopped playing?" Eleanor asked, content with laying her head on Harry's shoulder. When Harry didn't respond, she looked up and lost herself in his piercing, all knowing green eyes.

"Are you upset that I became champion?" Harry asked.

"I'm not upset." Eleanor replied and broke her eye contact with Harry.

"Don't lie, Ellie, like you said we knew each other even in our diaper clad days." Harry persisted.

"I know how much this means to you…and that I should be happy for you but what if, just what if something bad happens to you?" Eleanor choked out, on the verge of tears. "Even Professor Dumbledore said that people have died in this tournament!"

Harry was indifferent to all this as he stared blankly ahead. "Ellie, this is something I have to do…you of all people should recognize the signs, he's coming back…Longbottom's getting there but he'll need help, a lot of it." He said softly.

"I know…but it doesn't mean you have to assert yourself in this." Eleanor huffed slightly, folding her arms and looking away. Harry slowly unmasked his façade as he took a deep breath, took Eleanor's much more delicate and feminine hand in his and caressed it gently with his thumb.

"I made my promise to you, I won't break it." To say Eleanor was shocked would be a huge understatement; this was the first time since their childhood days that Harry initiated physical contact with her, with anyone for that matter. Looking up, she could see the Harry that she had spent much of her time with during their respective childhood. Hesitantly, Harry drew his arm around Eleanor's slender waist and pulled her towards him with gentleness that seemed to be impossible for Ravenclaw's Kaiser. The party below them in the Common Room was all but forgotten as Eleanor rested her head once again on Harry's shoulder.

* * *

The next mourning, all the Ravenclaws had an incredible air of smugness as they attended their various day-to-day activities, some intentionally rubbing the fact that Cedric Diggory would have never stand a chance up against the Kaiser of Ravenclaw to the Hufflepuffs.

They, however, did remember Harry's words the night before and gave Longbottom a wide berth whenever he was present. Some students even voiced their condolences to the fourteen year old; his opponent was Kaiser after all, who had won five dueling champions in a row with relative ease.

"Told you my brother could be very persuasive. He's the most respected student around here." Ryan said with the utmost pride in his tone to Hermione as they walked one of Hagrid's Blast-End Skrewt with a leash around its middle.

"Really? That's great, although it would be more believable if he smiled more instead of wearing that constant scowl of his all the time." Hermione said and yelped when the Skrewt's end exploded, dragging a screaming Ryan forward on his belly for several yards before the bushy haired witch cried, "_Immobulus!" _

Halting the Skrewt in its tracks and allowing her friend to get up.

"Yuck…" Ryan whined as he saw his clothes covered with dirt and grime and shot a glare at Hermione when she giggled. "This is all your fault." He said to the Skrewt, which obviously had no response whatsoever.

In the grand large library of Hogwarts, Harry was heavily focused on the book _Golems_. It was a gift from Sirius from his very own Black Library collection and was a rare one of a kind book, even for a highly intellectual student such as Harry, there were many things within the text that confused him as he read about summoning a Fire Golem.

"Envision flames coming to life?" He pondered with frustration as he looked up from the text.

"A knut for your thought?" Harry was broken from his focus as a familiar lavender scent filled his nose. He turned his head towards his left and saw Eleanor in the seat next to his and smiling back at him with her head supported by her arm.

"Nothing, just thinking." Harry responded as he closed the book.

Eleanor's eyebrow rose slightly and said, "I heard that the Champion of Hogwarts is needed immediately."

"What for?" Harry asked with slight irritation in his voice.

"I don't know, Bagman told me to pass the message." Eleanor replied standing up. Rolling his eyes, Harry stood up and the two journeyed towards the steps into the Entrance Hall. As their destination, a classroom it would seem, became apparent, Eleanor stopped in her steps and said enthusiastically "Good luck!"

Harry flashed her a smile and raised a hand and gave it a way as he entered the classroom. It was fairly small, with most of the desks pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however had been placed end to end in front of the black board and covered with a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch who was wearing magenta robes.

Harry immediately scowled when he recognized the witch as Rita Skeeter, a writer that could turn a person's life into total hell for the Daily Prophet. Krum was skulking as always and Harry had to give a mental groan as he saw Fleur floating towards him.

"Why does she always have to talk to me?" He thought to himself.

" 'Ello 'arry, what do you zink zis ees about?" Fleur inquired while tossing her silvery blonde hair.

"I don't know, I was given no information." Harry said emotionlessly, echoing Eleanor's words.

A pause of silence was ensured before Fleur asked, " 'Ow did you know zat the 'eadmaster of Durmstrang iz a Death Eater?" Harry stared long and hard at her but to his frustration, Fleur stared back defiantly at him.

Finally he relented and replied with a simple response, "My father's Auror Captain." The sound of the door opening quashed whatever Fleur was going to say next as Neville walked nervously into the room with Dumbledore, Madame Maxine and Karkaroff following closely. Harry took a seat near the door next to Fleur, crossing his legs and arms. Neville skittered over to them and took a seat next to Harry, who seem to be oblivious to his presence.

"Lady and Gentlemen, may I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judge's table, and talking to the champions, "He will be checking your wands to ensure they are in good condition before the Tournament."

Neville looked around and with a jolt of surprise saw a old wizard with large, pale eyes standing quietly by the window. Neville had met Mr. Ollivander before – he was the wand-maker from whom Harry had brought his own wand over three years ago in Diagon Alley.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, ladies first?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping in the empty space in the middle of the room. Fleur stood up and swept over to the wand – maker, handing him her wand. Ollivander twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks, holding it close to his eyes.

"Nine and a half inches…inflexible…rosewood…and containing…dear me…"

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a Veela," said Fleur with immense pride. "One of my grandmuzzer's."

"Yes," said Ollivander, "Yes, I've never used Veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands…" Fleur looked affronted but masked it. "However, to each his own, and if this suits you…" With that Ollivander made a bouquet of flowers shoot out of Fleur's wand and handed them and her wand back to her.

"Mr. Potter, if you will?" Ollivander asked. Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at Harry as he passed her but it vanished when Harry didn't smile back. Fleur couldn't help but feel puzzled, any other boy in Harry's position just now would be enthusiastic to smile back.

"Ah, I remember this wand very well." Ollivander said as Harry handed his wand. "One of the finest I have ever made… Albus himself was present that day were you not, old friend?" The ancient wand – maker asked the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Indeed, a marvelous spectacle it was." Dumbledore replied, blue eyes twinkling.

"Twelve and a quarter inches… Elder…flexible…with a hair from a very aggressive male Unicorn… I thought it was going to gore me to death…"Ollivander stated while twirling the wand. After sending a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the top of Harry's wand, he handed it back to Harry who snatched it with a speed too fast for the human eye to see.

Truth be told, Harry hated people having knowledge about his wand. The day he got it years ago, Ollivander had warn him of the wand's power.

"_Fascinating…" Ollivander breathed as he saw the strong silver aura oozing from the eleven year old boy before him. _

_"I beg your pardon." Harry said, narrowing his eyes. _

_"The wand you carry…Twelve and a quarter inches…Elder wood…incredibly flexible contains…the tail hair of a young aggressive Unicorn." Harry said nothing as he twirled the wand. _

_"Albus has asked me to make this wand specifically for you…" Harry quickly turned his head towards the Headmaster of Hogwarts who was standing with a smile at the corner of the shop, "It would seem that his foresight is sharp as always…be very wary Harry, I do not have any explanation for it but that wand in your hand, the power level is staggering… carry and use this wand with respect…and also treat your opponents with respect, which I know you will."_

And with respect he had whenever he used his wand. From the most simple Levitation charm to the Blasting hex, Harry had never stopped using his respect as the source behind his power. He looked up from his wand as Ollivander shot a fountain of wine from Neville's wand.

"Thank you all," said Dumbledore, standing up at the judge's table. "You may go back to your lessons now – or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end-"

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" cried Bagman excitedly, "All the judges and champions. What do you think Rita?"

"Er – yes, let's do those first," said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Neville hungrily again. "And then perhaps some individual shots."

The photographs took a long time, Madame Maxine cast everyone else into shadow wherever she stood and the photographer couldn't stand far enough back to get her into the frame, eventually she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Krum, which he expected to be use to this sort of thing, skulked, half-hidden at the back of the group. The photographer seemed keenest to get Fleur at the front, but Rita Skeeter kept hurrying forward and dragging Neville into greater prominence. Harry kept his scowl on his face as the pictures were taken. After the separate shots of all the champions, they were free to go.

In the Great Hall, Harry, seeing that Fleur seemed to be eating alone by herself decided to sit across from her, which startled the Quarter Veela. She couldn't help but cry out with joy inside at Harry's action. She giggled when she saw that Harry had nothing but salad and vegetables on his plate.

"Yes?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You eat razzer healthily." Fleur said, a small smile on the edge of her red cherry lips.

Harry halted for a bit before saying, "Eating fatty foods does not seem to agree with my stomach…so vegetables it is." Fleur laughed melodiously at his comment, it had been so long that she was able to laugh so freely in public.

"So, does Mademoiselle Delacour have any siblings?" Harry asked, not knowing what brought this on.

"Oui, Gabrielle, my leetle sister. She iz nine years old." Fleur replied with a wide smile, "And you Monsieur Potter?"

"I'm sure you've met or seen my littler brother, Ryan? He's in fourth year now and I have a sister named Rose back at home, she is nine too." Harry replied and smiled at the thought of his baby sister. He mentally made a note for himself that he was going to write to her tonight.

It turned out to be a enjoyable dinner for the two champions and they finished off the evening with Harry escorting Fleur back to her carriage.

"I'm not a defenseless, leetle girl." Fleur said as they walked.

"Don't flatter yourself, it is a perfectly good opportunity to gather information on my fellow champion." Harry replied stoically but Fleur saw right through it and covered her mouth as she laughed.

"Who would 'ave thought, ze cold calculating 'arry Potter actually 'as a sense of 'umor." Fleur said with a smirk and it grew when she saw Harry clearing his throat and shifting uncomfortably. At last, they reached the Beauxbatons carriage. An awkward pause was asserted between the two.

"Zank you for your company this evening, it iz good to 'ave someone to converse with." Fleur said shyly.

"No problem. Everyone needs a friend one time or another." Harry responded, folding his arms. Expressing sentimentality was not exactly his strongest suit.

Fleur's heart soared when Harry said he considered her a friend.

"Bonne Nuit 'Arry…you are most interesting." Fleur said seductively as she gave a lingering peck on the tall, messy black haired boy's cheek. She grinned when she saw his look of surprise and promptly walked up the stairs and disappeared behind the carriage doors.

**Please review, ideas are welcomed as always.**


	6. Kaiser's Power

**To all my beloved readers, your reviews were all very appreciated, it has been a frequent comment that Eleanor should be paired up with Harry but sorry, I have something different in mind. Something that would greatly impact Harry's view of the world, stay tuned to find out! Also, many people have noted that Harry is not an average wizard, well he isn't. However, power itself is an advantage and disadvantage. Sorry for not updating my stories, Skyrim is taking more time than I originally thought it would. **

**Chapter 5: Kaiser's Power**

The morning sun was just rising from the horizon, signaling the dawn of a new day. Most people were still in their beds and underneath their blankets, however two people with muggle tracksuits could be spotted trotting along the edges of the Black Lake. Ever since their arrival at Hogwarts, it became a tradition for the Potter brothers to wake up before the first rays of sunlight for their morning activities. Which included three laps around the lake, two hundred-push ups and sit-ups and an hour of jump rope.

"Thanks." Ryan breathed out as his older brother tossed him a bottle of water before opening it and taking a long drink from it, while the elder Potter merely gazed longingly at the rising sun.

"How are you not tired at all? I'm dying here." Ryan exclaimed while stretching his sore calves.

"Doing it everyday for seven years and you'll feel indifferent to it." Harry shrugged back, leaning his back against a boulder, sweat matting his hair. Then the two walked back up the stone stairs leading to the castle.

"Merlin, why can't we wear muggle sneakers in class? Hell, all the time." Ryan complained crossly. Harry chuckled at this and shook his head, it was times like these that took his mind off of his strenous life. Harry and Ryan split off towards their respective common rooms, after a quick but comforting shower, the Kaiser of Hogwarts donned on his school robes and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. He respectfully greeted his housemates and some of the Beauxbatons witches, while a silver haired goddess watched on.

"_He's so good looking, and he has such a strong grip." _Claire Fontaine squealed to her best friend after shaking hands with the tall messy black haired young man.

"_You have said that so many times already Claire, aren't you tired of it?" _Fleur replied while rolling her eyes but her cheeks flushed a bit when she remembered the memory from the night before with fondness. The surprise look on Harry's face was definitely cute after she had pecked his cheek, considering he was constantly scowling or glaring. She could only look onto the man that interested her greatly as he sat next to a gorgeous shoulder length blonde hair girl.

"Is that Rose's letter?" Eleanor asked fondly, Rose Potter had always looked up to her as a big sister. She smiled when she remembered a distant memory,

_A fourteen year old Eleanor Zabini was playing dolls her eleven year old sister and a six year old Rose Potter. Since their parents were close friends with each other, it was common that the Zabini children and Potter children played with each other and had sleep overs, well mainly the girls. She had outgrown dolls years ago but her sister and Rose dragged her into it. _

_"What's snogging?" Rose asked innocently right out of the blue. Causing Eleanor and Blaise to freeze. _

_"Where did you hear that word?" Blaise asked, gulping. _

_"I heard it when you two came to bed last night." The little redhead chirped. _

_"You were supposed to be asleep!" Blaise exclaimed and groaned when the youngest Potter just smiled widely. She helplessly looked at her older sister, who just looked amused. _

_"Well, snogging is an expression used when two people like each other very much-" Eleanor didn't even finish her sentence._

_"Like you and Harry!" Rose chirped excitedly causing to Eleanor blushed heavily. _

_"I KNEW IT, YOU DO LIKE HIM!" Blaise squealed with delight. _

_"I hope they get married…" Rose said dreamily, ignoring the fact that Eleanor now resembled an overgrown tomato. _

"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh? Nothing! That croissant looks ravishing." Eleanor gushed and grabbing a croissant, began devouring it. Harry just stared at his best friend and smiled before eating his jam spread toast.

As he was savoring it, he broke the seal of the envelope and fished out the parchment within, Harry's eyes couldn't help but soften as he saw his baby sister's handwriting. They have always been close, perhaps it was because he was the eldest out of his two other siblings. Harry and Ryan were close too but Rose, apart from Eleanor and his parents was the only person that could break through his cold exterior. That and they both inherited the irritable trait of stubbornness.

_Hi big brother, how is everything at Hogwarts? Several months left until I can finally come here…I can't wait! But…you're not going to be here anymore….Anyways! I heard from mum and dad that you're the Champion of Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. It must be dangerous, mum started to cry after dad told her. YES, I know eavesdropping is not a polite thing to do but hey, you know I won't be satisfied without all the facts. Enough about me, you should really ask Ellie on a date…you're not getting away that easily. I'm going to keep posting this request until you've finally done it. _

_With much love, _

_Rose _

Harry smiled when he finished reading the letter and tucked it inside his robe pocket, close to his heart. As breakfast ended, it was classes and work, which bored the Champion of Hogwarts to no end. He had already learned this stuff years ago, as he transformed his rabbit into a gold cup. McGonagall just awarded him ten points which he politely acknowledged before staring out of the window again.

Then near lunch time, he noticed that certain students were wearing badges that said '_Support Harry Potter, Hogwarts Champion' _on them. He frowned inwardly and asked the smart aleck of his year, Michelle Jones, a fellow, popular seventh year Ravenclaw that seemed to know everything that was going in each house. In other words, a big gossiper.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise, the Kaiser himself talking to little old me?" Michelle exclaimed sarcastically, she had asked Harry out in their fifth year but was turned down.

Narrowing his eyes before he spoke, Harry said "Hmmph…anyways, not that it matters one way or another but what is with those badges?"

"It was the first years' idea…they all apparently look up to you." Michelle replied with a roll of her eyes and walked off. After a excruciatingly boring class of History of Magic, Harry found himself in the Library again in his free period.

"This task could be anything." He thought with rare frustration, reading his copy of _Advanced Charms and Incantations_.

"The reversing shield spell, able to reflect most curses save the Unforgivables back to its respective owner. Equally effective in multiple combat…this might be useful." With that, the seventh year Ravenclaw read more in depth about the new spell that intrigued him greatly. The bell rung, signaling the end of class and the start of lunch and Harry found himself outside in his favorite spot on the clearing near the edge of the black lake with Eleanor.

"A date Mr. Potter? Are you feeling well?" Eleanor asked with fake concern, while tapping her thigh with her Cherry wood wand. In response, Harry only raised an eyebrow.

"Careful Ellie…I might just take you up on that offer." He said with a smirk and it was returned as both of them got into dueling positions with their wands pointed towards each other.

Then without warning, Eleanor cried "_Expelliarmus!" _

With relative ease, Harry slashed his wand down and the disarming spell was deflected as soon as it was about to hit him. He had learned from a younger age that deflection was way more faster than conjuring a shield charm. He did not attempt to hit back as he danced and evaded Eleanor's spells, he wasn't going at her at his full strength but he didn't dare underestimate Eleanor either, based from his experience Eleanor was no easy opponent; she was the one of the few people that lasted more than ten minutes against him.

"Come on, you're holding back…._Descendo!" _Harry gritted his teeth as the ground beneath him began to cave in, with a quick side roll, the Kaiser evaded the spell.

"_Mobilicorpus_!" He cried and Eleanor felt herself being lifted from the ground before being hurled a couple feet back. Quickly casting a cushioning charm, Eleanor was cushioned from the impact and landed on one knee.

"_Protego!" _She thought as her shield charm was erected before an arc of lightning smashed hard against it. She saw Harry's expression and knew that he wasn't playing around anymore.

"_Stupefy!" _She cried as a jet of red light shot out of the tip of her wand.

"_Fulmine!" _Harry thought as another bolt of blue lightning leapt out of his Unicorn haired wand. The jet of red light met the bolt of lightning, both Harry and Eleanor gritted as their wands rattled in their grip.

Suddenly, an explosion was then ensured, the smoke blinding both combatants. Harry had his wand readied, closing his eyes and listening. Moody had told him once that your eyes could deceive you.

Meanwhile, Eleanor was thinking something similar to her friend and with a wave of her wand thought "_Deprimo!"_ A large gust of wind blew the remnants of the smoke away and she smiled victoriously as she saw Harry and quickly cried, "_Stupefy!"_

The red jet of light shot out of her wand tip and flew towards the messy black haired boy who opened his eyes at the last second and leapt out of the way.

"_Impedimenta." _Harry thought but Eleanor merely blocked it with another shield charm.

"_Inpedimenta...Incarcerous...Locomotor Mortis...Stupefy." _Harry gritted his teeth as Eleanor performed her sedation combo, he had no choice but to evade them because he didn't wish to hurt her by using the more lethal spells in his arsenal.

"_Stupefy." _Eleanor incanted and sent a fast stunner towards Harry. Eleanor was sure that she had beaten him this time when she saw a transparent, silvery shield erected before Harry, she could only watch as her stunner was absorbed the shield and was speechless as she saw it being directed back towards her twice the speed she had sent it in the first place and then all she saw was darkness.

Harry quickly tucked his wand back to its holster as he ran towards Eleanor who was unconscious, not caring about the numerous spectators that had gathered during their practice duel. Harry lifted Eleanor slightly with one arm around her shoulder as he pointed his wand towards her chest and muttered, "_Ennervate" _

He smiled when he saw Eleanor's cerulean blue eyes open.

Their eyes met and Eleanor returned his smile, "What was that shield? I honestly didn't expect you to have something like that up your sleeve…" She said softly.

"It's a reversing shield charm. And yes, I learned that recently. I'm surprised myself that it actually worked, I would look quite the fool if I got knocked out by a single stunner hmm?" Harry said while smiling sarcastically.

"You were going easy on me." She stated, none too happy.

"I don't want to hurt you, I like you too much to do that." Harry responded and smiled wickedly as he saw Eleanor's cheeks reddening.

"Well, we certainly can't have people knowing that our Kaiser is beatable now can we?" Eleanor retorted, sighing with content as she felt Harry cupped her cheek. Harry smirked as she pulled her onto her feet.

"Course not." Harry whispered near Eleanor's ear, sending a shiver down her spine. Eleanor could only look down and blush as Harry pulled her through the many cat callings and wolf whistling from the enormous crowd.

"Where do you want to go?" Harry asked as they were once outside the earshot of most people.

"Anywhere is fine…" Eleanor mumbled shyly, after noticing that Harry still held her hand tightly. Together the pair made their way to the Astronomy Tower. On their way they encountered the Astronomy Professor, Aurora Sinistra, who was the second youngest Professor in the castle after the newly married Professor Black.

She gave the pair a knowing smile and made Eleanor blush even deeper as she sighed something along the lines of "Ahhh, young love…"

Luckily for the blonde haired girl, the object of her affection didn't bother to turn around to look at her or she'll never be able to stop him from smiling that smile that was filled with utmost amusement. She was a tad bit disappointed when Harry released his grip from hers as they made it to the top of the tower. Even though she knew that they were in a, to put it simple, a rather complicated relationship, Eleanor hoped that one day they would really be together. Her parents very understanding, to her amusement and embarrassment, Adrian Zabini was a bit let down that he couldn't play the protective father role against Harry.

"Hmm…that'll certainly be interesting to see." Eleanor thought as she stared at Harry who was resting his arms on the stone railing. He seemed to be deep into his thoughts as the wind gently blew against his hair. Gently she wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and rested her head onto his back.

"You'll get through this, I know you will." Eleanor whispered in a comforting tone. However, Harry remained stoic when he remembered one particular lesson he had with the real Mad-Eye Moody.

* * *

_"Sorry laddie, but in a war, you kill or get killed…take your pick." Moody growled as a tired Harry got up to his feet after his mentor destroyed his shield with a hurling hex. The two were in Potter Manor's long spacious training room. _

_"Kill or be killed…" Harry wasn't a violent person and his aim was to always incapacitate but not harm. However, his anger and frustration were pouring into his very being at the moment. _

_"Do it! Destroy him! You're better than him! You're the most powerful wizard on the planet! Everything that stands in your way must be crushed!" A voice whispered at the back of his head and suddenly, he smirked as he saw red. _

_Moody was surprised at what happened next, a bright silver aura flashed around the boy whose eyes were hidden away by his black bangs, suddenly Harry spun his wand in an arc, too fast to be seen and cried, "DEFODIO!" _

_Moody barely had the time to put up a shield that parried the gouging spell aimed for his stomach. _

_"Legilimens, Confringo, Depulso, Impedimenta, Incendio." Harry had a sadistic grin on his face as he saw the ex-Auror on the defense, attempting to fend off his chain of spells. _

_"Confringo." The blasting curse narrowly missed Moody, which was a huge surprise since he had lost a leg. _

_"Locomotor Mortis…Descendo" He thought and smiled though his leg locking charm was parried, the descending charm had worked. However, the ex-Auror wasn't finished yet as he fired an Expelliarmus against him which Harry deflected with ease. _

_"Damn it, why won't he drop dead already!" Harry's mind screamed in his angered state. "Gladius Incendio Evocatio!" _

_Three swords of fire shot out of his wand and lunged speedily towards Moody who could only try to repel them. Seeing that the ex-Auror was distracted, waving his wand in an arc Harry cried, _

_"Incendio Laqueus!" A fire lasso shot out of the Unicorn wand and clamped itself around Moody's waist making him grunt in pain. _

_"Finish him…" The voice at the back of his head commanded. "Fulmine." Harry cried as he swung the unicorn wand once again in an arc and a bolt of blue lightning sprang out from the tip of his wand towards his bound mentor. _

_"ENOUGH!" A voice cried out and a silver shield was formed around Moody, shielding him from Harry's lightning bolt hex and deflecting it towards the roof, causing a massive explosion. Harry turned towards the owner of the voice, a glare accompanied by a low pitched growl escaped his throat. _

_Albus Dumbledore quickly freed Moody from Harry's fire lasso with a wave of his wand before turning towards the Fifthteen year old boy and with upward flick of his wand, incanted "Devinctus." A bolt of jagged white light slammed into Harry and his wand flew from his grasp and he was forced on his knees. Nobody spoke for a minute until Dumbledore broke the silence._

_"What happened there Harry? Those spells were not your style…" It wasn't a question, but rather a statement from the Hogwarts Headmaster. _

_"I don't know Professor, I guess I just lost it…" Harry answered after a while of trying to break the spell, breathing deeply and placing a hand on one side of his face. _

_Thankfully, Dumbledore decided not to prod anymore, release his spell and said, "Control, Harry, control, we all have voices inside our heads__…be cautious not to succumb to them." _

_Then eyes twinkling again, the ancient Headmaster added, "Spectacular display though, I have never seen anymore master the fire lasso and fire sword spell so quickly…now go on, I'm sure you are quite exhausted after that show." Harry nodded and casted an apologetic look towards Moody who just laughed merrily like a child who has found out about owning a candy store and merely waved him off. _

_As he was walking off, he heard the two men speaking and halted in his tracks. "Albus, I'm serious, I have never seen one master such difficult spells in such a short period. Those spells aren't something a normal Fifthteen year old could do. Also, to incorporate them to great effect is even more complex…I am somewhat worried about him. His magical core is increasing in such a unnatural rate, it could be lethal for himself." Moody grunted. _

_"I understand Alastor…but this is Harry we are talking about, I have watched him grow up from a young boy as did you. He is a young man that only cares about the safety of his family and friends, he will not follow Tom's footsteps. As for his core, we'll just have to do our best won't we?" Albus replied in a tired tone. _

_"The way he just dueled…it reminded me of Ian in a way. That particular stare…not to mention that Ian always had talent with spells regarding to fire." Moody stated. Harry could only look at his wand as he heard his grandfather's name being mentioned._

That event was never mentioned again. "Harry?"

Snapping from his reverie, Harry squeezed Eleanor's arm gently before turning around so that he was facing her. Still in her embrace and simply smiled.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, you hungry?" After seeing her nod, the pair set off towards the Great Hall. Harry was a bit irked that most of the students were gawking and whispering at him so he opted to eat his ham sandwiches in the Courtyard instead, just below an Oak tree. Then he looked up as his companion Fenris swooped down from the clear sky.

"_Hello, old friend. What good news do you bring?" _Harry said through their mental link as he scratched the eagle's neck.

"_Last night, I was scouting the forest from up top. It seems that the first task will include flying lizards." _Fenris replied as he flapped his wings.

"_Dragons? This is certainly a surprise…but not unexpected." _Harry replied.

"_You will triumph, as you always have." _The large bird of prey stated. Harry nodded and his eyes narrowed as he saw Neville Longbottom approaching him looking very nervous yet determined.

"Hey Harry." Neville greeted.

"What can I do for you Mr. Longbottom?" Harry inquired, staring straight into his eyes. Neville was a bit intimidated by the way Harry was staring at him, it was in many ways worse than Snape's death glare.

Summoning his Gryffindor courage and with a gulp, the boy said, "Do you know that the first task includes-"

"Dragons." Harry replied and tilted his head. Neville looked gobsmacked as his jaw dropped to the ground.

"You have your sources, I have mine. Let's just keep it at that shall we?" Harry said as he fed Fenris a piece of ham and watched as his companion took off into the skies.

Neville looked very much embarrassed and was about to turn around and stopped when he heard his fellow champion say "But thank you nevertheless." Neville nodded before walking off with a proud smile etched on his face.

"Hey man, what's up?" Ryan Potter inquired his older sibling as he brought two bottles of pumpkin juices, throwing one at Harry who caught it.

"Nothing in particular." Harry said and got to his feet. "Thanks for the drink." He added before heading towards his dormitory in Ravenclaw Tower to search for possible methods to defeat the dragon, he chose his dorm because he wanted less people to know about the types of books he was carrying.

Harry landed on his soft four-poster bed with a thud before he brandished his wand at his bedside cabinet, which had a series of complicated locks placed that would only open to his magical signature to prevent people from trying to steal his things. With an audible click, the various locks opened and Harry fished out several offensive spell books.

"This is going to be a long day." He thought to himself.

* * *

Several hours later the Hogwarts Champion found himself walking from the Forbidden Forest with a pensive look on his mind, and a smirk formed at the corner of his mouth as he headed towards the Castle.

Meanwhile in the Great Hall, a certain silver blonde quarter veela sighed as she walked through the halls of Hogwarts. Fleur was already irked beyond comprehension at the drooling faces casted from boys and hateful glares from girls, it truly wasn't her fault that her allure is something that cannot be shut off. And she certainly did not look forward to the English food.

In addition, she had a dreadful feeling forming in her stomach about battling a dragon, Madame Maxine had already formulated a plan for her; it included a tricky spell that would make anything alive to fall asleep. Fleur had felt that she had mastered it quite quickly and hoped that it was going to work on an actual dragon.

"Fleur, what's the matter? You don't look too well…" Her friend Claire remarked with concern, Cho was also looking at her anxiously.

"It iz fine, just a leetle tired…" Fleur replied. Thankfully, her friends did not comment any further. Fleur was thankful that she didn't have much British food in front of her, which Cho just smirked.

"You're not the only one Fleur, trust me." Eleanor said with slight smile from her place next to Cho, like Harry there was barely anything other than fresh vegetables and lightly charred fish on her plate. Fleur reluctantly smiled back, she felt very awkward speaking to this particular girl and what was worse was that she didn't know why.

"So, my dear friend, is it true that Harry works out every morning?" Claire suddenly asked out of the blue, her pixyish eyes sparking mischievously. Eleanor flushed bright pink at the brusque question and can only nod meekly. She nearly jumped when Harry almost appeared out of thin air and took the empty seat next to her, pouring a glass of ice-cold pumpkin juice from the pitcher before downing it. He had forgone his robe and was only dressed in a rolled up button up white shirt, black pants, a blue tie with gold strips and a black vest over it.

"Where've you been? You're not usually this late to a feast." Eleanor inquired.

Harry flashed her a fatigued smile and replied, "Sorry, got some things I wanted to experiment…so I went into the forest to test it out." Harry muttered.

"You 'ave already everyzing planned out?" Fleur asked in an exotic tone, her allure on full blast. However, to her disappointment, the black haired wizard just smirked and said.

"Maybe…we'll find out tomorrow, oui?" Fleur was a bit annoyed so she just huffed and returned to eating the asparagus on her plate. Eleanor, seeing what just happened could barely repress a giggle, causing all eyes to be casted on her.

"What, pray tell love, could be that funny?" Harry asked, leaning his head on a hand.

"Let me guess, you didn't feel it at all?" Eleanor asked while laughing quietly.

"Felt what?" Harry asked sarcastically and gave the quarter Veela who was sitting across from him a wink. Harry then saw his friend Roger staring at Fleur agape and smirked as he smashed the back of his head into his bowl of stew.

"Harry, what THE hell?" The captain of the Ravenclaw House Team exclaimed in surprise as his entire house in addition to the other houses was sniggering loudly.

"It's rude to stare." The Kaiser simply retorted and with a flick of his wrist, the stew on Roger's face was gone.

"I suppose so…my apologies Ms. Delacour." Roger mumbled.

"It iz fine, I'm use to eet." Fleur replied and smiled at Harry who just merely raised an eyebrow at her. After the feast was over, the Ravenclaws returned to their common room while Fleur and Claire returned to the Beauxbatons Carriage.

It was a quiet night as Fleur got into bed and buried her face into her pillow but she knew better, tomorrow she would be fighting for her life against a real fire breathing dragon, she envied Harry to be able to remain so calm under such circumstances, seeing his brief duel with Eleanor Zabini made her very uneasy. Fleur could immediately see that Eleanor was an adept duelist but Harry wasn't relatively trying his best in that duel and still won. "How, if it is at all possible…to defeat that perfect man."

Far up in Ravenclaw Tower, a lone figure sat with his legs crossed in an armchair, the fire in the fireplace the only light source. Studying the dancing flames, Harry leaned back and sighed,

* * *

_Six hours ago_

_Wearing a black trench coat and his usual white button up shirt and black pants, Harry growled as he was ambushed by six Acromantulas: each with deadly pincers, eight eyes, covered with thick black hair reaching to fifteen feet. _

_They were snapping their pincers with glee, thinking that Harry was easy meat. With a smirk, Harry pointed his wand at the nearest Acromantula and cried, "Diffrus Perfigum!" _

_A jet of silver light sprang out of his wand and slammed into the gigantic spider, causing it to rupture and subsequently, blow up into pieces. Angered by the loss of their kin, the Acromantulas all sprang themselves on the human. _

_Keeping alert, Harry flicked his wand and three blades made of fire rose shot out of the tip of his unicorn wand and impaled themselves on three Acromantulas that were closing in. Harry smiled sadistically as he evaded a pounce from another Acromantula, which was severed, into two with a quick Sectemsempra. _

_Harry mentally thanked Snape for indirectly teaching him that spell while he viewed Moody's memories of the dueling styles of all known Death Eaters. Satisfied that the flaming blades he controlled were still disemboweling those gigantic spiders, Harry leapt onto a high branch and conjured more flaming swords to combat the increasing numbers of Acromantulas that were stubbornly trying to get to the black haired boy. _

_"Incendio Infernum!" He grinned when a star surrounded by a circle carved in flames formed on the ground, the Acromantulas were starting to fret by the sight and was given no warning when the ground suddenly gave way and lava sprouted out immediately scorching everything it touched. __This was it. _

_"__To profundo inferni humili servo tuo clamat ad te perdere qui stant in via. Ut sciant negando consequentiam potes!" Harry chanted. Nothing happened at first, the flames were just merely flickering from the scorch earth but then a terrifying roar was bellowed as a the ground trembled violently, Harry steadying himself on the tree branch he was situated on. _

_He laughed wickedly as he saw a lava-covered hand rising from the depths of the cracked open earth. The ground continued shaking as the creature emerged from the fissure. It was a truly terrifying sight, standing up to sixty feet tall, covered and dripping with lava from head to toe and two tormenting glowing yellow eyes was a lava golem. _

_Harry then fell to his knees as he clutched his head, "You DARE disturb my slumber, little worm?" A voice thundered in his mind. _

_Breathing raggedly, Harry responded with respect, "It is not my intention to do so but I have a mighty adversary to overcome when next light breaks." Harry baited, reading from his book of Golems that Golems are irresistible to prospective tough opponents. _

_"And what is the nature of this adversary." The golem inquired, intrigued. _

_A loud distant roar answered his question as the Lava Golem made a ruk ruk sound, "How positively delightful, fire tongue…worthy foe indeed, you have a deal mortal. Summon me when the time is right and my abilities are yours to command." The Lava Golem bellowed in Harry's mind as it descended back into the depths of the earth._

Snapping back to the present, Harry gazed idly at the dancing flames then at his wand. He was ready.

**Unknown Location**

"My my…what have we here?" A hooded figure spoke softly to himself as he saw the projection of Harry Potter scorching the large group of Acromantulas rising from the large world map that was suspended in midair within the seemingly endless dark room that was only alight with two torches.

**Translations:**

**_To profundo inferni humili servo tuo clamat ad te perdere qui stant in via. Ut sciant negando consequentiam potes! - _**

_To the depths of hell your humble servant calls out to you to destroy those that stand in his path. May they know the consequence of denying your power!_

**Please read & review, again y'all are welcomed to leave suggestions for future chapters. **


	7. Fire Versus Fire

**Please read & review, again y'all are welcomed to leave suggestions for future chapters.**

**Hello and thank you for all the great reviews and suggestions.**

**Chapter 6: Fire vs. Fire**

Harry awoke from the surrounding darkness, all through the night he had been thinking about the First Task and what role did Voldemort have in it. Taking a look at his alarm clock he sighed as he saw it was only six a.m.

Getting into a sitting position on his bed and wrapping his arms around his blanket clad legs, the black haired wizard narrowed his eyes.

_"And what is the nature of this adversary… fire tongue…worthy foe indeed, you have a deal mortal…my abilities are yours to command…" _

Harry then took his wand from its position next to his pillow, gazed at it before changing out of his nightclothes.

* * *

**Unknown Location**

Total darkness filled the seemingly endless room; only two candles and the enormous projection of the planet Earth provided any light, bathing the room with a blue glow. The hooded figure sat cross-legged on a comfortable chair, facing the projection of Earth. In his hand was a shot of Firewhisky, a floating chessboard in front of him. A smirk appeared at the edge of the figure's mouth as he moved a pawn forward.

"You wish to see me Zathras?" A tall man garbed entirely in black from head to toe inquired from behind, his face hidden from view.

"I did, I'll need you to take a trip to Hogwarts as soon as possible." The man in the chair, Zathras replied calmly, not even bothered to turn around.

The man behind him narrowed his eyes, "Hogwarts? There is nothing save the Triwizard Tournament that is happening as of now…"

Zathras remained emotionless at that and said, "I wouldn't send one of my top men for a simple task. Go to Hogwarts and observe one Harry Potter, report anything that stands out of the ordinary. Stay in the shadows."

If the man felt any confusion in his mission, he certainly didn't show it. "Understood."

With that, the man stepped into a circle of runes that glowed brightly and with a flash he was gone, leaving Zathras alone in the dark room to his chess match.

"Ian, my friend…it would seem that it was destiny after all." Zathras mused quietly, moving a knight forward.

* * *

**Back at Hogwarts**

The winds gently blew across Harry's face as he sat on the grassy clearing near the edge of the Black Lake; the Kaiser simply observed the rising sun. He had told his brother that they wouldn't be doing their routine exercises today due to the reason that the first task would be taking place.

In truth, Harry really wanted to have a private morning alone. Meanwhile the doors to the Beauxbatons Carriage opened, revealing an ethereally beautiful silver blonde haired young woman, dressed in a baby blue color robes.

Fleur closed the carriage doors behind her and smiled at the sunrise, she had always loved the outdoors. Her smile grew wider as she saw Harry Potter sitting all alone on the grass.

"_Why am I feeling such uneasiness? I already know that I'll get past this task…so then what? What is Crouch Jr. planning? What is the meaning of this?"_ Harry thought to himself but snapped from his thoughts as soon as he heard a familiar exotic voice break the silence.

"Good Morning, 'arry." Fleur said as she took a seat next to black haired wizard.

"Same to you, Ms. Delacour." Harry replied, staring into her deep blue eyes.

Fleur had to use every ounce of her mental strength to not blush at the spot as she stared into Harry's glowing green eyes, she was the daughter of a respectable Auror Captain and Triwizard Champion for Beauxbatons not some lust filled teenage girl.

The silence that was awkward in the beginning was almost non-existent now as the two young adults simply enjoyed the sun rising together.

Fleur shivered as a particular cold gust of wind blew against her face and her eyes widened when she felt something warm wrapped around her neck. Looking down, it was a blue scarf with bronze strips on it.

"Zank you…" The beautiful Veela murmured towards the young man next to her, trying her best control her heart from beating so quickly. The scent on Harry's scarf did smell nice though, it wasn't cologne; Fleur could only conclude that it was Harry's unique smell.

"I wonder eef 'e taste like zis too?" She thought before shaking her head to dispel the dirty thought.

Next to her, Harry raised an eyebrow in amusement but didn't comment. The two continued to gaze at the sun and the seemingly endless black lake until it was time for breakfast. The pair attracted much attention as they entered the Great Hall together, but neither of them cared.

Harry immediately sat down and buttered up a piece of toast before devouring it. He smirked when he saw Hermione and his brother piling a bunch of food on Neville Longbottom's plate. He felt sorry that the boy had to have such an unfortunate fate but what can one do in the face of destiny.

"_We are all puppets of destiny…" _Ian Potter would often tell his grandson whenever Harry asked why things happen they way they did.

He was slightly irritated when Cho and Eleanor decided to pile up the quantity of toasts on his plate, but that did nothing from detracting their smug smiles from their faces.

"You'll be thanking us after the task Harry." Cho said with a giggle. Harry just eyed at the high stack of buttered toast before glaring at the two young women. As he demolished the toasts, he took a chance to observe his rival competitors. Viktor Krum was sulking as always but his face was paler than it usually was. Fleur was the same, the normally confident quarter Veela was more reserved this morning. Suddenly her eyes met his and to his surprise, Fleur gave him a nervous smile before returning to her breakfast.

Time then flown by quickly and Harry found himself skiving pass Arithmancy, Transfiguration and Charms class rather rapidly even though those were his favorite classes. Professor Black, McGonagall and Flitwick were all looking very anxious, though they knew Harry's capabilities best but battling a dragon isn't something students do everyday.

At lunchtime, Harry was heading down towards the Great Hall when suddenly a small red blur slammed into him, clinging tightly to his knees. Looking down, Harry couldn't help but smile despite the supposed dire circumstance.

"Hey princess." Harry greeted his baby sister.

Rose dimpled cutely at him, "Hello big bro, I've missed you so much."

"Right back at you." Harry replied, patting Rose's head. Together the siblings walked hand in hand towards the Great Hall, Harry couldn't help but feel truly happy the way his sister gazed inquisitively towards the moving portraits on the walls. His sister was so innocent and pure, so free from the cruel reality of life.

"I hope you never change." He silently thought as he looked at Rose hugging Eleanor quite tightly and chatting rather quickly whilst he took some sandwiches and two bottles of pumpkin juice for himself and Rose to eat somewhere peaceful.

"Seems like our little princess is here to cheer you on, Harry." Ryan Potter said as he stepped next to his brother, with two turkey sandwiches and a bottle of pumpkin juice in his hands.

"It would seem so." Harry replied.

"Rose, come." He beckoned and after giving her 'hopefully' soon to be sister in law a hug, the red haired girl took her brother's hand and all three Potter children walked together out the Great Hall. It was a rare opportunity for the three siblings to be able to be together with each other during this time of year.

Rose marveled at the beauty of the seemingly endless Black Lake and was frightened as always of the mysterious Forbidden Forest. She giggled when Harry and Ryan threw bits of bread into the lake, only for the Giant Squid to snatch them with its tentacles.

"Where's mum and dad?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, they said they wanted to meet with Professor Dumbledore regarding to the precautions of the first task. You should have seen mum dragging dad towards Professor Dumbledore's office." Rose said while giggling lightly. Ryan and Harry shared looks, they loved their mum dearly, she was the best mum in the world but sometimes, just sometimes, they felt she worried about them too much.

The three of them then finished their lunches and lay relaxingly on their backs while staring at the fluffy clouds floating up in the clear blue skies.

"Ah, there they are…" Harry sat up and turned around, a smile formed on the edge of his mouth as he saw his parents walking towards them. Lily Potter immediately engulfed both her boys in a strangling hug, which they helplessly struggled against.

"Its so good to see both of you taking such good care of yourselves." She said while hugging them, Harry and Ryan glared at her sister when she made no attempt to hide her amusement of her brothers being smothered by their mum.

Finally releasing her embrace, Lily smiled proudly at her eldest son, tears rolling down her cheeks. "My son, Champion of Hogwarts… I'm so proud of you." Harry smiled slightly at that statement; despite his facade inside he was happy though.

"Mum, you're embarrassing him." Ryan snorted but a smirk confirmed he was joking. Together the Potter family walked together towards the direction of the makeshift coliseum stage where the champions would be pitted against their dragons. Despite having to face a dragon, Harry was very much at ease with the company of his family. Normally, people who took one glance at Harry Potter would find a cold, distant, uncaring man but the real Harry behind his thick layers of façade was a loving and kind young man who loves his family and loyal to his friends.

Harry and his siblings smiled and laughed as they listened to James and Lily reminisce about their days at Hogwarts.

"We're not allowed inside." James said as they reached the large tent next to the coliseum. James gave his son a squeeze on the shoulder, followed by a tearful, strangle hug from Lily, Ryan then gave his brother a fist bump and wished him luck.

"You're…gonna…be okay right? You'll win?" Rose sniffed, wiping the tears on her rosy cheeks with the sleeve of her jacket.

Harry smiled gently and bent down on one knee, "Silly princess." He said. "Of course I'll be okay." Patting her head gently, Harry whipped out his wand and with a swish, conjured a blue handkerchief and gave it to the small redhead.

After one final look at his family, the Kaiser of Hogwarts entered the tent. Harry realized that he was the first to arrive, he also noticed that there were four beds, each secluded from each other.

"Ah, Mr. Potter welcome, make yourself at home…your robes for the tournament have been delivered here, on that bed over there." Ludo Bagman greeted while pointing to a bed. Harry nodded and proceeded towards the bed with his satiny, blue colored robes and gloves. He could hear Bagman greet the other three arriving champions as he pulled on a glove from behind the drape.

Opening the drapes, he calmly took a seat on an empty chair and observed the psychological states of his fellow competitors. Krum was being surlier than ever while sulking around like always. Neville was pacing around looking as if he'd throw up the second he opened his mouth.

Fleur was also pacing around and smiled nervously at Harry when she caught him observing her. "Why? Why isn't he nervous at all?" She pondered, as she perceived only calmness and nonchalance from the Ravenclaw Champion.

Then Ludo Bagman entered the tent once more with the Headmasters and Headmistress of the competing schools along with the other judges entering after him.

"Well, now we're all here – time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly, he was wearing his old Wasp robes again.

"When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" – he held up a small sack of purple silk, and shook it at them – "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different – er- varieties, so to speak. And I have to tell you something else too … ah, yes … your task is to _collect the golden egg_!"

And so the four champions waited as they heard hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking. Harry took a glance at Neville, the poor boy's face was now green with nervousness.

Then Bagman opened the neck of the purple silk sack. "Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur.

She caught Harry's eye before putting a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon – a Welsh Green. It had the number 'two' around its neck. Her facial expression showed no surprise, which validated Harry's theory that she had been told of what was coming; the same held true for Krum. He pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball with a number 'three' around its neck and went back to his sulking.

Then Bagman stuffed the purple silk sack in front of Harry's face. Narrowing his eyes, the Kaiser of Hogwarts calmly dipped his hand into the sack and pulled out a small dragon model that had black scales, a spiked tail, and bronze horns protruding from its head. Its yellow eyes glared at Harry's with immense hostility.

Harry heard Bagman cry out, "Number one! The Hungarian Horntail!" Harry stared at the small-animated model before tightening his grip on his wand.

"Well, there you are!" said Bagman, after Neville had pulled out the last dragon model from the sack, a Swedish Short-Snout with a number 'four' around its neck.

"You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragon, do you see? Mr. Potter, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear the cannon, all right? Longbottom, could I have a quick word? Outside?" Harry gave no sign that he had listened at all and simply walked towards the edge of the tent's entrance. He closed his eyes and prayed that his plan would work; a blast of a cannon then filled the air, silencing the enraptured crowd.

Slowly, opening his eyes Harry stepped out of the tent, the cheering became deafening as he walked past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence. The dragon keepers bade him good luck, which he promptly ignored.

He saw everything in front of him as though it was one gigantic blurred picture. Hundreds and hundreds of faces sere staring down at him from the stands above the rocky enclosure. The Hungarian Horntail was at the other end of the enclosure, perch on top of a particularly rock perch.

It was crouching low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half furled, her yellowish eyes meeting his directly. The monstrous, scaly black lizard then thrashed her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground.

Then without warning, the Horntail opened its mouth and sent a large burst of fire towards his direction.

"_Protego Aquaro_" Harry waved his wand and a powerful jet of water sprung out and surrounded the black haired wizard in a protective sphere, preventing the hot searing flames from scorching him. The Horntail was clearly enraged when it saw its flames having no effect on the intruder.

Knowing that he had to act fast, Harry swung his wand in an arc and cried, "_Incendio Infernum."_ A large glowing, red pentacle appeared between the Horntail and himself.

The earth began to shake as hot, molten lava spurted out of the fissure violently, the ground trembling immensely as the earth split open. This was it, with the stage all set Harry began to chant. "_To profundo inferni humili servo tuo clamat ad te perdere qui stant in via. Ut sciant negando consequentiam potes!"_

The clear blue skies darkened and the sounds of thunder were soon rumbling, then suddenly there were screams from the spectators as something began to rise from the fissure of lava, a hand made of entirely out of magma ascended from the cracks of the fissure.

The Horntail was still guarding its nest protectively as it faced its new adversary. Two yellow eyes gleamed from the fiery depths, slowly pulling itself up and rising to all of its sixty feet, the entirely lava covered giant gave the Horntail one earth-shattering roar before it charged ahead with speed one would not attribute to such a giant.

The Horntail's flames did nothing to the lava monstrosity as it charged towards the scaly lizard. Harry only smirked as he saw the lava golem deliver a powerful uppercut at the Horntail. The Horntail reared its neck back before blasting the lava beast ferociously with its flames.

The lava golem merely absorbed the flames at point black and with both of its lava covered hands, grabbed onto the Horntail's neck and breaking the chains that prevented it from taking off and swung it in a circle before flinging the flying lizard if it were weightless towards the other end of the enclosure on top of a pile of uneven stones with a loud crash.

The lava monstrosity then walked slowly to the flying lizard and grabbed its neck from the back and began constricting it.

"_Don't harm the eggs." _Harry commanded as he attempted to establish a mental link with the lava golem, which had the Horntail in a strangling hold.

"_And this?" _The beast bellowed in his mind.

"_Dispose of it as you wish."_ Harry replied as he ran towards the perch where a nest of eggs was kept. A dark chuckling noise was all he got in his mind before the sound of a large snap and an anguish roar made him turn back.

The Horntail had finally succumbed to its fate as its neck was snapped almost into a sickening ninety-degree angle. The crowd was now entirely quiet now as they looked on with fear at the abomination Harry had summoned.

As he made his way to the gleaming, beckoning golden egg in the nest, Harry found himself suddenly struggling to breathe as everything suddenly became unfocused. He grasped the gold oval shaped egg but fell to a knee when a sudden burst of pain exploded within his chest.

"_It is done._" The lava golem's voice thundered in Harry's mind. "_I like you…I have not been in a fight for sometime." _The golem then approached the fissure and slowly descended back into the depths of the earth.

"_I feel hanging around you will bring forth many great challenges."_ Was the last thing it bellowed into Harry's mind before it completely vanished into the fissure, as the ground closed up; the pain in Harry's chest remained as he stood up with unease and shakily walked off towards the entrance of the enclosure.

Then as his world began to clear up, he realized that nobody was saying anything, the spectators and the judges were silent as they looked at him with shock etched clearly on their pale white faces.

Then Bagman, with difficulty finding his voice said in a trembling tone, "Well, look at that! What an amazing spectacle it was…simply marvelous." The entire Potter family was waiting for him at the entrance.

Lily simply pulled her son into the tightest embrace she could muster as soon as he was close enough. Harry didn't complain when his father joined in, as tiredness consumed him.

"Mum, I know you have a lot of questions…Dad too but I just want to lie down right now." Harry murmured before falling unconscious and would have dropped to the ground if his father hadn't caught him.

Both his parents nodded to each other as James and Ryan supported Harry into the mouth of the second tent where Madam Pomfrey stood. Helping Harry out of his outer robes and lying onto a bed in a secluded cubicle, Madam Pomfrey waved her wand to perform some diagnostic tests on the knocked out teen.

"How is he, Poppy?" Lily asked, holding onto her son's hand in a tight grip.

"He's fine physically, but he's suffering from magic exhaustion. Whatever he was doing in there, in that enclosure, if it had continued…there would be no telling what might happen." The matron said.

James and Lily sighed in relief at the news, "Give him these for when he wakes up and the next few days." Madam Pomfrey ordered as she placed a vial filled with purple liquid. "Core Restoration potions." James squeezed his wife's shoulder as the matron walked off.

"Could you believe it Lils, our Harry slaying a dragon…and just what was that thing he summoned?" James said as he took a seat next to his wife.

"I don't know, I don't know…but I'm glad my baby's alright." Lily replied as she stroked her son's pale cheek. Ryan and Rose just stared at their sleeping elder brother with awe until they heard footsteps arriving at the entrance of the cubicle, revealing Eleanor who took one look at the most important person in her life before dashing towards him.

She was about to open her mouth when she saw Lily motioned her to be quiet. Slowly she took the seat next to Harry's bed, next to Lily and grasped his hand with hers. She gave Lily a thankful glance when she felt the older woman's hand on her shoulder.

"Is he going to be okay? Aunt Lily?" Eleanor asked, tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes.

"Don't cry, honey, its just magic exhaustion. He'll be back on his feet in no time." Lily said, comforting her 'hopefully soon-to-be daughter-in-law'. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes slowly turned into almost an hour as the Potter Family and Eleanor watched Harry sleep, none of them had left the cubicle; not even when Bagman announced that the task was over. Eleanor, Ryan and Rose were listening as Sirius told them about how the other champions did on the first task.

"Of course, nothing phenomenal like your brother…anyone that came next couldn't possibly outmatch a performance like that." The Grim Animagus said with a grin.

"On a more important note, where did Harry learn that chant? Our personal library has no such magic." Lily asked while glaring at her long time friend, who started to rub his neck nervously.

"Er, Lils, I think that was partially my fault…Harry specifically requested some books for his last birthday and I guess I didn't look thoroughly at what he requested. I didn't think he would actually try any of the things in them…", Lily was about to began a long, angry tirade against Sirius when a raspy voice broke the silence.

"Uuugh…Where am I?" Everyone turned their attention back to the sleeping young man who was starting to awaken, Eleanor could finally let out the breath she was holding and smile as she saw Harry smiling back weakly at her.

"You stupid, inconsiderate jerk, do you know how worried I was?" Eleanor shouted at him while lightly punching his chest and yelped when Harry pulled her close to him, making her fall on top of him on the bed. Harry gave a wink to Sirius who just chuckled when he realized that his godson had just narrowly saved him from one of Lily's legendary angry tongue-lashing.

James shot his wife a proud and knowing smile as he joyously watched the scene unfold.

"If it makes you feel any better…I'm sorry?" Harry said with an apologetic smile.

"HARRY!" Rose squealed as she launched herself onto her big brother's bed.

"Hi, Princess." Harry said tiredly.

"I'm really glad you're okay." The small redhead chirped and smiled cutely when she saw Harry smile back.

"Mum, Dad, what was my score?" Harry asked as he began to sit up, despite Eleanor and his mother's protest.

"Perfect as ever, Harry, I'm happy to announce that you have been awarded fifty points out of fifty…" Albus Dumbledore's grandfatherly voice filled the tent as the Headmaster of Hogwarts' eyes twinkled madly.

"I see…" Harry answered as he slowly lay back down.

"There is also the matter of the Horntail…" Dumbledore started, "Though slaying it was not a part of the objective…the remains are yours. The second task will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty fourth. The golden egg will provide a clue, simply open the hinges." The Headmaster of Hogwarts said with a smile and left the tent but not before giving Harry a lingering look.

"What're you going to do about the dragon remains?" Eleanor quizzed her best friend.

"I guess I would have to find someone to break it down with me…" Harry said while getting out of the bed and downing the vial of purple potion in one gulp.

"But sweetheart, you need your rest." Lily protested as she tried to convince her son to stay in bed but sighed with reluctant acceptance as Harry kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm fine, mum…besides, dad and my dear dogfather are going to help me." Harry said, putting on his robe and grinned when he saw his father and godfather do a double take.

"Ooh, Harry, can I help? This'll get Hermione super jealous." Ryan asked as his green eyes gleamed with anticipation.

"Fine, you can help but don't complain." Harry said with an amused smile as his brother grinned widely.

"Alright but please, Harry… don't overexert yourself." Lily said with a sigh, why did her children all have to be so damn stubborn.

With a final smile, James, Harry and Ryan left the tent, leaving the three ladies alone in the tent. "Aren't you going with him, dear?" Lily asked Eleanor, to which she just shook her head.

* * *

"Holy shite, this thing's bloody massive." Ryan exclaimed as he saw the Horntail carcass before him and shot his elder brother a look of respect. James could only whistle loudly, he would definitely not take on a Horntail all by himself.

"Right lads," The Auror Captain said to his sons while pulling on some gloves and a mouthpiece, "We'll be here for a while, better get comfortable."

Harry and Ryan shared a look before placing their mouthpieces and the three began their gruesome work. They did not, however, see the raven that was staring intently at the eldest of the Potter children as it took off into the skies.

* * *

Fleur Delacour was walking in the corridors out of the Great Hall by herself after her dinner, she was relieved to have passed the first task unscathed, with her skirt being lightly singed but her shock was colossal when she overheard other students talking about how Harry had slain his dragon.

She was skeptical at first but the look on Claire's face confirmed it as she asked her best friend, the quarter Veela then listened as her very excited friend told her how Harry had summon some sort of giant humanoid creature made entirely out of fire that simply overpowered the dragon.

"_You should have seen his eyes, he looked so hot in control."_ Claire had said as they ate. Fleur could only smile at her best friend's remark, the girl with the pixyish brown eyes always said what was on her mind. She was approaching a turn when she heard voices around the corner.

With much curiosity, she took a look and saw Harry, back in his school robes. He and his younger brother had their backs faced towards her, hugging them both was a beautiful woman with long red hair with the same green eyes Harry had. Next to the red haired woman was a man who looked like an older copy of Harry with messy black hair, lopsided glasses and a mischievous smile on his face.

Deciding that she shouldn't intrude on Harry's moment with his parents, Fleur decided to take another route back towards the Beauxbatons Carriage.

"Take care of yourself, sweetheart, remember to take your potions regularly…" Lily said, hugging her eldest with eyes filled with tears.

"Merlin, mum…I'm going to be fine. Have more faith in your son." Harry mock chided his mother. Lily scoffed and flicked her son on the forehead but smiled again when her son kissed her gently on the cheek.

Then she moved to Ryan who merely raised two hands and said, "Mum…I'm fourteen. You know how I feel about such mushiness." His protest went unheard as Lily pulled him into a strangling hug. "Be careful, sweetie and listen to your brother."

"Yes mother." Ryan replied while rolling his eyes.

After releasing her second son, James lightly grasped his wife's shoulder and whispered, "We should go now. The boys need their rest."

Lily nodded and beckoned at Rose, who was clinging tightly to her two brothers.

"Promise me, you'll both write?" The small redhead sniffed with the biggest, cutest puppy dog look on her face. Both her brothers inwardly groan, they were completely powerless against that look.

"Of course." Harry said, patting his baby sister on the head.

"Everyday if you need to." Ryan responded with a wink.

Both boys inwardly sighed in relief as they saw a face-splitting smile appearing on the youngest Potter's face. Rose then skipped towards her parents who waved at the boys one last time before they headed towards the Headmaster's Office to use the floo.

Harry and Ryan watched until their parents and sister disappeared around a corner before walking off in the opposite direction.

"What're you going to do with all the money made from the dragon remains?" Ryan quizzed his elder brother while examining the golden egg that was in his grasp.

"I don't know to be honest, I read that Horntail dragonhide makes good flexible, magical resistant leather armor." Harry replied nonchalantly, rendering down the Horntail carcass had taken some time even with the assistance of magic and he was beyond glad to see it all locked within several enchanted trunks, which was then transported back home with the help of some eager house-elves when they overheard their problem over dinner in the kitchens since dragon parts were magical and thusly cannot be shrunk with a shrinking charm.

Ryan handed the golden egg back to his brother as they parted ways to their respective common rooms. Harry was immediately swarmed with loud cheering and exhilarated shouts of congratulations to which he just acknowledged with a barely visible smile. After telling his fellow housemates to continue with their partying, the Kaiser of Ravenclaw disappeared up and around the stairs that led towards the dormitories.

Harry flicked his wand and the locks to his trunk unlocked themselves after recognizing his unique signature. Carefully placing the egg in a secluded compartment, the messy, black haired young man closed the lid of the trunk and locked it once more. He smiled when he saw several vials of purple potion sitting on his bedside table, uncorking one he downed the purple liquid and changed into his nightclothes. Then, with immense fatigue, Harry fell down asleep on his soft, comfortable bed.

* * *

**Unknown Location**

"I trust you have good news?" Zathras inquired with a smirk as he surveyed the projection of Earth, specifically Western Europe as the circle of runes behind him glowed brightly and a tall man garbed from head to toe in black stepped out.


	8. An Unexpected Event

**A.N.- Thank you for all the reviews, the Horntail being killed by Harry's Fire Golem was probably too much and many people have said that Harry's ability to own everyone is unrealistic…there's a reason for this, it's all a part of the story that is to come. All Eleanor lovers, enjoy it while you can.**

**Chapter 8: An Unexpected Event**

His messenger had not disappointed and brought back exactly what he had expected to hear, "So Ian…your plan did work after all." Zathras silently pondered as he glanced down at the chessboard that was hovering motionlessly in the air in front of him. He couldn't help but lose himself in his memories as he looked at the projection of Earth in front of him.

_The sun had just begun to set, bathing the crystal clear blue pond in a heartwarming, orange glow. A lone figure stood idly at the edge of the pond as he simply gazed at his own reflection. Although the man had a head full of graying white hair, his stature was still straight and alert, like that of a disciplined soldier. He was dressed in an expensive muggle silk suit, a finely crafted cane with the figure of a dragon's head near the top of the staff._

_He had barely noticed a figure appearing out of the shadowy mist, "It's been a long time, has it not?" Ian Potter said, breaking the peaceful silence._

_ A dark brown haired man that seemed to be in his late-early 30's, dressed in long black pants, a black button up shirt and a long black trench coat slowly materialized out from the dark shadows. _

_"It has. I suppose you have not arranged this meeting for a sympathetic shoulder to cry on…how long do you have left?" Zathras said uncaringly as he now stood next to his longtime 'friend'. _

_"Days, months or maybe even a year…" Ian replied and then turned his head sideways. "And you look as well as the day you took that accursed elixir." _

_Zathras smirked contently at this; he raised his eyebrows and responded with a voice filled with sarcasm, "You should have really taken up on Nick's offer…but you rejected it...foolish." _

_"I've had a rewarding long life with no regrets, I dare say I've made the right decision. The way you're living, its not natural…" Ian replied and coughed into his handkerchief and wiped the blood away from the edges of his mouth. _

_To his surprise, Zathras emitted a chilling, cold laughter that seemed to suck out the warmth from the air. _

_"After all these years, still sprouting words of Albus…I have to admit, you disappointed me greatly, Ian. All those talk about forgiveness, how can you even live with yourself." Zathras said with a half sneer. _

_"We nearly had the entire world in our grasp, we could have reshaped it for the better but you just had to back out due to that old, crazed man's delirious delusions." _

_"It was wrong of us to play gods, Zathras! What gave us the right to do what we did?" Ian exclaimed angrily, meeting his friend's disgusted look. _

_"Our power did! Look around you! Tens of years have passed and NOTHING has changed! The government still corrupt and inequality everywhere! Need I recount the things dear Grindelwald did? The pureblood traditions are going to be the death of us all!" _

_"And what would you suggest we do?" Ian asked tiredly, coughing as he did. "Wipe out all the purebloods and destroy the Ministry and rebuild it?" _

_One look on Zathras' face and his cold silver eyes told Ian that the thought had crossed his mind. "_

_You left out the pathetic Wizegamot… If that's what it takes to finally have peace, then yes." Zathras said quietly. "If we allow things to continue as they are now...how can you be absolutely sure that people won't make another mistake again? The purebloods are the ones who are unable to accept the change around them…they are afraid that the world no longer revolves around them, which it doesn't." _

_Ian had no answer to Zathras' question nor did he want to talk anymore on this subject, if Zathras really did decide to wipe out all the purebloods on the planet, he feared that not even Albus Dumbledore would be able to stop him. _

_Zathras smirked coldly as he felt waves of fear emanating from his long time friend, being born with the ability to feel what others around him were feeling was a very useful tool. _

_"Enough talk on this, what is the real reason you have for asking me to come here?" The top Unspeakable agent demanded with folded arms. _

_"It has to do with my grandson's future…if he's to survive the upcoming storm, he'll need to be more powerful." Ian said tiredly. _

_Zathras' silver eyes narrowed as he quietly murmured. "Don't tell me you're planning to…" _

_A nod from Ian answered his half-spoken question. "As I have said, I do not fear death but my grandson, Harry is only five years old. He has his whole life ahead of him, what an mature child he already is…" Ian drifted off as both men turned around and saw an elderly yet still elegant woman walking towards them with long snow white hair and warm chocolate brown eyes. _

_Clutching her hand was a small boy with black, untamable black hair and glowing green eyes. _

_"Ian, dearest, the doctor said you shouldn't be exerting yourself." Dorea Potter said as she touched her husband of nearly fifty years on the cheek. _

_"How is walking around in my backyard exerting myself?" Ian replied moodily, Dorea immediately casted a look at Zathras, who merely raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement. _

_"It's not but discussing anything with Zathras always heightens your blood pressure." Dorea chided her husband as if he were a child. Zathras actually laughed out loud at his friend being taken down a notch by his wife. He stopped when he felt the woman's glare on him, immortal he may be but Dorea Potter was a Charms mistress as well as being an incredibly powerful witch, not a person he would want to get on the bad side of. _

_"It's been a long time Dorea, you're looking rather nicely for a lady of your age." Zathras said truthfully, bowing low. Dorea merely rolled her eyes, Zathras then surveyed the little boy who was clutching his grandmother's hand and staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. _

_"And who are you suppose to be?" He asked as he looked down at the child. _

_"Harry, Harry Potter, sir." Harry Potter replied politely. _

_"Please to meet you Harry, my name is Zathras…"_

Zathras curled his hand into a fist as he snapped from the memory; the boy had survived the power transfer ritual with Ian that he had conducted himself and grew up with more power than he could have imagined.

"It seems you have gotten your wish, my friend…" He thought silently as he saw out of the corners of his eyes of the projected memory of Harry chanting an incantation that raised a terrible beast made entirely from lava out from the ground.

* * *

Harry woke up with the worst headache he had ever experienced as sunlight pierced the drapes, fumbling his hands on his bedside table, he located a phial of purple liquid and downed it one go, gasping deeply as he did. He felt as if the world was tilting right and left as he tried to get his eyes to work. Madam Pomfrey had warned him privately about the backlash of magical exhaustion but no word could describe the pain that he was experiencing.

Breathing slowly, his headache disappeared as he got out of his bed. After brushing his teeth attentively and washing his face with ice-cold water, he stared at his own reflection from the clean, shiny mirror.

His skin was gaunter than it was usually and his face had the word exhausted written all over it. Then he changed into his day-to-day school attire, taking his time as he tied his bronze colored stripped blue tie around his neck. Harry felt eyes and constant, annoying whispering surrounding him as he entered the Great Hall, he could clearly see the fear in their eyes of him. He couldn't help but feel disgusted towards the reactions his peers had against him and in particular, the recently instated Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Rubeus Hagrid, the man was literally in tears at the head table as he ate his breakfast.

Personally, he felt that the part-Giant professor isn't a suitable teacher at all and he wondered if Albus Dumbledore had finally lost all touches with reality when he made that decision. Harry, had of course heard when Edward's brother, Draco had been severely mauled by a Hippogriff while trying to protect one Ms. Granger due to one Ronald Weasley's stupidity of berating the animal.

Back to the dragon, it could have easily killed him, and in such a situation, it is to kill or be killed. So no, he wasn't sorry that the Horntail had to die by his hand. Dragons were intelligent and magically powerful creatures that posed a great danger to the growing human population.

"In fact, I'm just doing them a favor." Harry thought to himself as he buttered a toast, there were other ways to get the egg without harming the dragon, that he knew of course but why not do a little bit of vermin exterminating in the process. He certainly wouldn't shed a tear if he heard that all the dragons were wiped off from the face of the planet. And according to the muggle evolutionist, Charles Darwin, and his statement regarding to the survival of the fittest, only the strongest and those who can adapt will survive. It was a sad and true fact but reality is seldom kind.

"Guess who?" A feminine voice said rather mischievously as a pair of hands covered Harry's eyes from behind. He only smiled as he recognized Eleanor's melodic voice.

"Hmm…is that you Cho?" He asked wonderingly, earning a punch to his arm. He smirked when he saw Eleanor huff indignantly, glaring slightly at him.

"Only kidding, Ellie…I'm sorry. How can I make it up to you?" Harry apologized and asked but immediately regretted his apology when he saw Eleanor's notorious mysterious smirk slowly appearing on her face.

"How bout taking me out on a date." She requested and smiled when she saw her long time childhood friend stiffen.

"Fine…but don't expect too much from me." Harry replied in an icy tone. Eleanor flashed him a beautiful smile and lovingly stroked his cheek, causing Harry to widen his eyes in surprise and the nearby Ravenclaws to whistle and wolf howl at them. Needless to say, Harry had his Occlumency shields up during the remainder of breakfast.

After their Charms lesson before lunch, Professor Flitwick had gathered all Ravenclaw students from fourth year to seventh years in his classroom.

"What's this about, you reckon?" Roger asked Harry, who was sitting next to him, observing his unicorn haired wand. Harry merely answered with a shrug and returned to twirling his wand between his long fingers. When everyone was present, the tiny charms master began his announcement on top of a high pile of pillows in a squeaky tone.

"Thank you all for your patience, I have called this house meeting to announce that Hogwarts will be hosting the Yule Ball, it is a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. The ball will be open only to fourth years and above – although you may invite a younger student if you wish-" All the girls in the classroom began to chatter and giggle incessantly. What annoyed Harry was that many were staring at his direction.

"Hormonal teenage girls…how I hate them." He thought bitterly as he coldly returned the stares with a truly hateful glare before focusing his attention back towards his Head of House.

"Ladies, please settle down…" Flitwick squeaked as he tried to get the situation under control. "Dress robes will be worn," He continued after the commotion had settled. "And the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall."

With that, the Ravenclaw Head of House dismissed his very excited students, to be put mildly save Harry, which he signaled to stay behind. After complimenting him on a job well done on the first task, as well as suggesting that there were better alternatives than killing the Horntail, to which Harry remained silent at. Harry wanted the world to totally engulf him when he heard that the champions would be opening the dance. He now started to regret entering his name into the Goblet of Fire. Exiting the Flitwick's classroom, Harry cleared his mind and went down to the Great Hall for lunch.

* * *

Eleanor's heart was beating so fast with excitement that she thought that it was going to pop out of her chest when she had heard that a dance would take place this year, there was only one man that she would allow to take her. She sat quietly and straightly amongst her friends in the courtyard as they chattered about boys, dresses and giggling.

"Who are you going with, Eleanor?" Marietta Edgecombe, a fellow Ravenclaw two years below her asked.

"Do you even need to ask that? Harry's going to take her for sure…she's his woman." Cho replied for Eleanor with a face-splitting smile causing the beautiful blonde to blush. However, deep down, Eleanor was afraid that Harry might not ask her because he hated balls and other such social events, even when they were children, often opting to stay in his room to read or play his violin. But her fears soon dissipated as she felt Cho nudging her side, looking up, she saw Harry walking towards them, his emotionless, cold green eyes staring straight into hers.

Eleanor inwardly sighed, she hated that Harry always had to be so emotionless in public; the cheerful and carefree Harry had disappeared forever ever since his grandfather died but she had always hoped that he would drop the façade. He was the only one in their class that was able to see the Thestrals that pulled the carriages up towards the castle each year.

"Eleanor Zabini…" Harry said in a clear, composed voice, Eleanor was staring at him with blinking eyes and was filled with confusion when she saw Harry reach behind her ear.

"What is he doing?" She thought amusingly.

"Would you, do me the honor…" Her blue eyes widened when she saw Harry's hand retracting with a white rose that was not present before, in his hand and offered to her, "of being my partner for the Yule Ball." Harry felt himself sweating as he stared into the blue eyes of the girl he had deep affections for, his father had told him that there was nothing easier than asking a girl out however for him, it was the farthest thing from easy.

Eleanor took the rose, inhaled the flowery scent and flashed him a beautiful smile, it was rather sweet of Harry to attempt a try at being romantic. "I would love to go with you, Harry." Before Harry could react, Eleanor threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck forcing Harry to place his hands on her waist to keep her from losing her balance and his entire body stiffened when he felt Eleanor's lips on the edge of his own.

Next to Eleanor, Cho and Marietta were squealing and covering their mouths with their hands, which caused Harry's hand to twitch lightly with irritation. Noticing his obvious discomfort, Eleanor rolled her eyes before locking her elbow around Harry's and promptly dragged him off.

Meanwhile Fleur Delacour was having the most infuriating day of her life, since the announcement of the Yule Ball, there had been many boys that have tried to ask her to accompany them but they either stared at her chest or at the ground, needless to say, she rejected them all. What's worse was that it made her appetite go away and she spent the rest of lunch behind her icy façade and complaining about the smallest of things. As she walked slowly through the corridors of Hogwart's castle towards the Beauxbatons Carriage to rest and get ready for her afternoon classes, she was at the entrance to the courtyard and came upon one of the funniest things she would ever see in her life.

Harry was glaring menacingly at his younger brother, "Remind me why I must accompany you to ask a girl out?" Harry replied through gritted teeth.

"Because you're my brother and you might actually learn something about women." Ryan replied. Harry glared harder at the younger copy of himself but said nothing as Ryan sauntered off. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned backwards against a tree as he watched with as immense amusement as his brother go down on one knee and asked Blaise unashamedly with her friends present.

Harry couldn't help but snigger as he saw Ryan punch the air with joy and sending a wink his way. Then he closed his eyes as he felt a familiar mind tugging feeling, "Enjoying the show, Ms. Delacour?" Fleur's eyes widened as Harry turned his head around, his eyes meeting hers.

"Oui, it iz very funny non?" Fleur replied as she walked and stood next to her fellow champion.

"It is." Harry replied as he watched his brother high-fiving his fellow Gryffindors.

"How time flies by…" He silently thought to himself, it felt just like yesterday when he had fought off the bullies that were shoving his little brother around.

" 'ave you gotten a date for ze Ball? It would seem zat as champions, we would start off ze dance." Fleur feebly tried to ask Harry regarding his availability status. God, how did he hate having to say this, considering that Fleur was not like the other girls and was someone he could call a friend, he really hated to be the one to reject her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Delacour…but I have already asked another." Harry stated as brief as possible and looked away, he always hated this part the most. Fleur felt her chest aching but did her best to smile, she didn't want Harry to think she was weak for crying over such trivial matters and also to let him know that she wasn't interested in him.

"Don't be sorry, I'm glad." Fleur said painfully and quietly, with that she began to walk off towards the direction of the Beauxbatons Carriage alone.

"Ms. Delacour?...Fleur?" Fleur immediately stopped in her tracks as she could barely believe her ears, Harry had just called her by her name. She turned to face him and saw that he had a mixture of a concerned and pained expression etched on his face.

"Perhaps…if you would like, I could, maybe save you a dance?" Harry asked out loud before he could process his unfurnished proposal. Fleur's heart skipped a beat, and she found herself smiling happily at him.

"I would love to." She replied and with a radiant smile plastered on her face, the Beauxbatons champion walked off.

"_You have never acted like this around another female?" _Fenris echoed loudly in Harry's mind as the eagle swooped down from the clear sky and onto Harry's shoulder.

"_I know." _Harry replied, "_and it worries me." _

* * *

Over the next few days, snow began to pour down from the sky and despite the fact that a ball will be hosted, the workload didn't stop piling; Harry stretched his arms as he finished the last sentence of his Transfiguration essay regarding to Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration.

McGonagall certainly didn't make it easy, even for Harry. Out of all the teachers, only Flitwick and Professor Vector-Black had been allowing free time for their students during their classes, knowing that they probably wouldn't learn anything with Christmas and the ball nearing. Harry was deeply concentrated as he looked at his father's most prided possession, the Marauder's Map alone up in his dormitory in Ravenclaw Tower. Specifically keeping an eye on the tag that had the name Alastor Moody on it. Several times, the name had changed into Barty Crouch and he had even caught the name appearing in Snape's potion ingredient storage.

"No doubt to make more Polyjuice." Harry thought as he muttered "Mischief Managed." And the map's ink dissolved, leaving the parchment blank. After locking the map securely in his trunk, Harry left Ravenclaw Tower and towards the direction of the Headmaster's Office.

"Strange for the Headmaster to not voice the reasons of this meeting…" Harry thought to himself as he ascended upwards leaning on the Phoenix gargoyle behind him. He didn't bother to knock as the door to the Headmaster's office opened just as he was about to run into it.

"Ah, good evening Harry…" Dumbledore greeted, his eyes twinkling brightly.

"Same to you Headmaster." Harry replied curtly as he took the seat in front of Dumbledore's desk.

"I'm sure you have been wondering why I have required your presence?" Dumbledore said tiredly as he stood up and began pacing around his office.

"I have." Harry said.

"Your performance against the dragon in the first task was commendable but there are other ways more efficient than destroying the foe in front of you." Dumbledore said quietly and turned to face his most promising student.

"Indeed there is, but can you blame me in a such a perilous situation." Harry asked.

"I suppose your reasons have remain unchanged still in becoming an Unspeakable."

"They have."

"…Killing and annihilating everything that supports the Dark Lord is not the answer."

"Spare me the lecture!" Dumbledore eyes widened at the sudden outburst, Harry's eyes had darkened and it didn't take a fool to see that he was furious.

"Murder, genocide, suffering and inequality are happening because a certain part of the Wizard World refuses to admit that the time of change has arrived and have continued to stupidly hold on their laid back traditions and prejudices. Everything horrible that has happened was THEIR fault! And if destroying them all means the end of this never ending war and drenching my hands with blood, so be it!" Harry yelled with rage.

Then, composing himself and hardening his face Harry said quietly, "I believe this is where we part, headmaster. It is clear that our beliefs are obviously not in agreement with each others."

With a look of immense dislike on his face, the Potter heir abruptly stood up and left the office, leaving a bewildered Dumbledore at his wake. The Headmaster of Hogwarts slowly sat down in his chair, the expression Harry had just now matched the one he had years ago when he had lost control of himself in the duel with Alastor, one filled with only hatred and the desire to crush anything that stood in his way.

Albus was saddened by the fact that his star pupil was no longer the same boy that came into the Great Hall for the first time. Fawkes could only trill sadly, as it shared the sentiments of his companion.

Harry was staring at the vastness of the Forbidden Forest on the Astronomy Tower, it was often a safe haven for him whenever he was in a foul mood. "The ends justify the means..." A voice in his mind whispered. Harry's hands curled into fists as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Ever since his heated outburst with the Headmaster, Harry had become more secluded than usual. Only appearing for his daily meals, classes and spent the rest of the time alone in his favorite patch of clearing near the Black Lake strumming his guitar and meditating. Fenris had often accompanied him, the eagle had understood his companion's reasons for desiring to tear down and rebuild wizard society as he patiently listened to his companion talk.

"I can't believe I'm actually going to dance in front of everyone in the castle, this is madness." Harry thought to himself as he stared at his own reflection in the mirror. His mother had insisted on sending him a new brand new black shiny Armani tuxedo even though he had one in his trunk already. Harry grimaced as he saw the dress robes his fellow peers were wearing…speak of being archaic. Checking his bowtie one last time, the messy haired Ravenclaw left Ravenclaw Tower, he hadn't seen Eleanor all day and when he asked Blaise, the Slytherin version of her sister just smiled slyly.

"Women…" Harry thought as he walked down the stairs, he would never understand why they had to take so long in such matters though he never dared voice the thought aloud, for fearing the repercussions. As he neared the entrance of the Great Hall, his eyes narrowed in irritation as he heard and saw passing girls, Hogwarts or not, giggling. Apart from him, only Neville Longbottom and Viktor Krum were present. Neville was fidgeting nervously with the sleeves of his dress robes while Krum merely acknowledged him with a nod of respect.

Harry was lost in his own little world as he examined his loyal, unwavering wand. Recently, the wand seemed to have lost some of its powers, he'd have to make a trip to Diagon Alley and ask Ollivander about it. His focus snapped when he heard a gasp, pocketing his wand back into his tuxedo pants pocket, the green eyed wizard looked up.


	9. The Test and The Second Task

**A.N.- Sorry for being absent for so long. I had so many AP Exams to study for, even as a High School Senior, Calc BC, Stats, Chemistry and Physics C. Barely had any time to do anything else than study. My sincere apologies, I will try to update HP and the Veela soon. **

**I know a lot of you still don't like the high level of power Harry has; well he's going to appear to be mediocre soon. I think in the original canon, there has to be more powerful wizards and witches throughout the world, not just Voldemort, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald. I think Rowling left out that there are maybe more wizards and witches with similar power statures in the same time. I mean, isn't magic suppose to be something that is limitless. Just a thought for all the readers, it would be really sad if Voldemort were the strongest wizard alive in Harry's era. **

**Chapter 9: The Test and The Second Task**

"I must ask, Zathras, what is the purpose of sending me to test a mere seventeen year old boy." A tall figure clad entirely in black asked emotionlessly.

"It's a waste of time and especially when our plan is in its most crucial stage."

"Are you questioning my authority, Alex?" Zathras replied in a quiet, warning tone without turning around from his throne like chair. The man, Alex, looked to be in his mid-twenties with a slim, dancer like figure, blackish blue hair and a pair of grayish blue eyes that narrowed slightly.

"I shall do as you ask and test the boy's abilities but it does not take a seer to predict the eventual outcome." With that Alex turned around and disappeared into the darkness. Zathras simply stared at the dossier that was in his grasp, the name Harry James Potter was at the top.

"What will you do, Harry…when you face foe that is as strong if not stronger than you? Do you truly have what it takes to persevere?" With that, the man placed the file down and picked up the glass of bourbon that was resting on the right armrest of his chair and took a long sip.

Meanwhile, in the planet room in the Department of Mysteries, Alex was surveying Jupiter when a voice broke the deathly silence, "I've heard of your new assignment, this would certainly make things interesting around here no?" A man in his early twenties with very round glasses, curly reddish blonde hair and sharp, mischievous amber eyes pronounced as he stepped calmly next to Alex.

"How's the operation going Enzo?"

"Good enough, everything is almost set in place…." Enzo replied while lightly tugging the lapel of his coat. "I heard that this initiate is unlike any other…must be big if the boss personally assigned you to this."

"No matter what is I assigned, I'll do it. I will be back soon after I defeat the boy." Alex said coldly, walking away from his fellow Unspeakable.

Alone in the planet room, a smile appeared on Enzo's face as he said in a knowing tone, he actually felt sorry for the potential recruit "Of course…"

* * *

Thousands and thousands of miles away, at Hogwarts, Harry could hardly believe his eyes, walking down from the stairs was a slightly nervous Eleanor. Harry thought it was impossible for his best friend to look even more gorgeous than she already was but all the evidence was right in front of him.

She was wearing a pale gold colored strapless long ball gown, which matched her deep blonde hair perfectly, as well as accentuating her wondrous curves and dancer like body. Her hair had been done elegantly into a bun that revealed a pair of sapphire earrings. She had almost no makeup on at all, yet she looked breathtaking.

"Hi." Eleanor said shyly as she reached Harry, inwardly thinking how handsome he was dressed in such simple clothes.

"Hey…" Harry replied, still staring at his date. "You look…well, um, fantastic."

"Thanks. You too." She said looking down demurely when she noticed that Harry was still staring at her.

Harry sighed inwardly, "Here we go…" He offered his arm. "Mil lady…"

Eleanor took his arm with a dazzling smile as Professor McGonagall began to have the champions and their dates line up. McGonagall smiled as she laid her eyes on Harry and Eleanor, Harry merely avoided his Transfiguration teacher's smile while Eleanor returned it with one of her own.

They were behind Krum and a girl in blue robes as they entered the hall amidst the numerous applauses and cheering from the rest of the student population. The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling.

The house tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern lit ones, each seating about a dozen people. Nothing changed in the top table, it was still a row for all the professors and Ministry officials.

Just slightly below them were four small tables with a candle in the middle of the table and two chairs at each end facing each other. Harry could only smirk as he saw the Viktor Krum fan club looking infuriated and enviously at the Bulgarian's date.

Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, he was glad that Harry seemed to have calmed down from their slight altercation in their most recent meeting as the Ravenclaw Champion nodded at him with acknowledgement. Harry seated Eleanor in a gentlemanly fashion before sitting down himself across from her.

"I actually prefer sitting like this to sitting with the professors, who would want to sit with them?" Eleanor asked out loud while picking up her menu. To her surprise, Harry let out a rare laugh.

"They'll probably bore us to death, talking about how great their schools are." He replied.

Dumbledore then demonstrated on how food was to appear as he looked carefully down his own menu, then said very clearly to his plate, "Pork chops!" And Pork chops, and a side of potatoes and salad appeared on his golden plate.

Harry had opted for a lightly grilled Chicken breast in olive oil while Eleanor had chosen a pan-fried Salmon steak. Throughout dinner, Harry and Eleanor focused solely on each other, talking about things that had happened during their childhood with each other. Eleanor giggled at Harry's annoyed expression as she reminded of the time when she had surprised and pulled him into the pool behind Potter Manor.

"You got lucky that time…I thought you were still changing." Harry replied.

"Oh?" Eleanor challenged. "We'll see over summer if you still fall to the same trick."

"You're on."

Eleanor then directed at her glance to where Fleur and her date, a dream slackened Roger Davies were sitting. She looked okay, in Harry's opinion; the most beautiful girl was currently sitting across from him, narrowing her eyebrows as she observed the Beauxbatons Champion.

"I know she doesn't have a good date but does she really have to bitch like that to everything?" Eleanor said as she sipped her glass of water. She smiled when she heard something like an"Hmmph" from Harry.

"How is it that you're the only guy in this castle that doesn't go drooling on his own clothes whenever she walks by?" Eleanor asked playfully and giggled behind her hands as Harry simply raised an eyebrow at her and tapped the side of his head. "That's because they're all hollow inside." Harry replied sarcastically, and smiled when he saw Eleanor giggle. He always liked the sound of his best friend laughing and giggling, it was filled with such happiness.

He was astounded to finally recognize the identity of Krum's date. It was Hermione Granger, one of his brother's closest friends. Neville Longbottom had invited a fourth year Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott as his date.

"So have you heard of my brother's famous courtship for your sister's hand?" Harry said with a teasing smile on his face.

"Of course I have, I've never seen Blaise smile so much before, true Gryffindor chivalry unlike his brother." Eleanor teased back, making Harry scowl.

Meanwhile, Fleur sighed miserably as she watched the exchange between Eleanor and Harry. True, she might not have known Harry for a long time but she still felt drawn towards him, the silver blonde haired young woman did not know what to do. Aside from the fact that he was the only man in the entire castle that was not reduced to a drooling slob whenever she walked by, Harry was the one of the very few people that listened to whatever she had to say.

She noticed Harry's date taking a look at her and shaking her head with slight disapproval at her rather impolite remarks. Harry took one glance at her before focusing on his attention on his date, his expression was unreadable but quickly turned into a brief sympathetic smile, and she instantly regretted saying all those things and looked away. It was suppose to be a great evening but instead, Fleur found herself staring at a very dazed Roger Davies in an almost miserable atmosphere. With unhidden resignation, she rose from her chair when she saw the Headmaster of Hogwarts doing the same, motioning everyone else in the hall to follow his example.

With a raise of his wand, the tables were all pushed to the sides of the hall as a raised platform was elevated with a whole array of instruments on it. Suddenly, the Weird Sisters, a popular magical band entered the Great Hall amidst thunderous applause and took to the stage. Fleur watched with sadness as Harry led his date on the dance floor and started a graceful waltz. A small part of her wished that it could be her on his arm.

* * *

"What are you giggling about?" Harry inquired with a raised eyebrow as he spun Eleanor.

His dance partner smiled and said, "I was just thinking of the time when I saw you dancing with Aunt Lily during one of the ministry balls when we were younger."

"Don't remind me…I still have nightmares about that."

"Oh my, did ice, cold, uncaring Mr. Potter just made a remark that isn't serious?" Eleanor feinted a surprised expression on her face. She yelped when Harry pulled her close, his lips almost brushing against hers but not close enough for a kiss.

"Gotcha…" He whispered and smirked when he saw Eleanor blush bright red.

"You'll pay for that." She growled.

"Oh, I'm soooo scared…challenge accepted." Harry replied as they waltzed. Through the night, Harry and Eleanor stuck together, never dancing with anyone else. Of course, no one would be stupid enough to ask Eleanor for one dance for fearing that their bodies might be found in the bottom of the Black Lake with boulders tied around them.

"I'm flattered you want me to only dance with you but can't you at least let me say no instead of you making unnecessary threats?" Eleanor asked amusingly as Harry twirled her.

"But that's exactly the point…they won't heed my warning otherwise. And I seem to excel at aggressive negotiations, don't you think it's a waste of my talents if I did so otherwise?" Eleanor rolled her eyes her partner was just incorrigible.

"Ryan, is your brother smiling?" Blaise Zabini inquired with a wide-eyed expression at the dancing pair as her date returned with drinks.

"Huh yeah…why is it so surprising?" Ryan asked, puzzled.

"Nothing, I think smiling suits him better than that poker face he always wears." Ryan looked at his older brother, he looked happy. "You deserve it bro." He whispered before turning to Blaise, thinking how pretty she looked in her current turquoise blue dress.

"Mil lady, may I have this dance?" He asked with a bow.

"Of course, good sir." Blaise replied with a grin on her face as she allowed Ryan to lead her back onto the dance floor.

* * *

On another part of the dance floor, Fleur was at the end of her patience. Her date wasn't a terrible dancer but his dazed, unfocused expression at her still disgusted her to no end. Roger wasn't the only one who was drooling stupidly; the males around her were all affected by her allure, which caused the quarter Veela to feel even more irritated and angry.

She excused herself after a couple of dances, and opted to calm down in the gardens. Edging around the dance floor and slipping out into the Entrance Hall, the front doors stood open, and the fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden winked and twinkled as she went down the front steps, where they she found herself surrounded by bushes, winding ornamental paths, and large stone statues.

Fleur could hear splashing water from fountains, she saw couples sitting on various benches. Taking a seat on an empty bench, Fleur felt all the irritation and her frustration dissipating. She took off her silver dancing shoes, casted a warming charm on herself, drew her knees to her chest, hugging them tightly and gazed at the clear night sky and the numerous glittering, diamond like stars scattered all over it. Fleur could not think of anything more beautiful than the starlit night above her as she loss track of time gazing. Slowly but definitely, tears began to pour down her eyes, like repressed rain finally able to come down.

* * *

Harry was escorting Eleanor out into the Entrance Hall but stopped suddenly as he stared into the direction, which led to the gardens. He felt terrible that Fleur had slipped away before he could honor his promise to her.

"Is she still there?" He wondered to himself.

"Harry?" Harry's snapped from his thoughts and faced Eleanor, who looked baffled.

"What's wrong?"

"I…." Harry found himself truly unable to speak for the first time, how was he suppose to say that he had promised another girl a dance in front of his date.

"This is a completely new scenario to me but I promised a friend that I would give her a dance, I'm sorry that I didn't mention before." Harry said quickly and closed his eyes, expecting a ferocious tongue-lashing.

Instead, he heard sounds of giggling instead, slowly opening his eyes, he found Eleanor trying to stifle her giggling behind her hand.

"Oh Harry, you're overcomplicating things."

"Wait…you're not upset?"

"No, why would I?"

"I don't know, women is one of few things I have yet to grasp a full understanding of."

Eleanor rolled her eyes and let Harry's hand go, "I'm afraid that's one thing you'll never understand, no offense…just go, I'll be fine."

"You…you sure about this?"

"Merlin, Harry…if you stay here another second, I'm going to kick your arse all the way to the moon, you never make a promise to a girl and then give her cold turkey."

"Fine, fine…" Harry muttered before kissing Eleanor on the cheek and dashing towards the direction to the gardens, leaving a stunned blonde haired girl touching the area Harry just kissed. Eleanor stared at Harry's retreating form and smiled before heading back to Ravenclaw Tower alone. Her wish had partially come true, for Harry to be more open with people around him.

* * *

Lightly jogging, Harry searched the rose gardens for Fleur, a part of him was afraid that she had already went to bed.

"There's no one here, should make it easier." He thought as he scanned the area for any signs of silver blonde hair. After a while, he found the quarter Veela on a bench, hugging her knees. Not knowing what to say, Harry sat down on the wooden bench next to Fleur who immediately snapped her head up and her slightly moist eyes met his.

"What are you doing 'ere? Aren't you suppose to be wiz your date?" Fleur asked, a bit snappier than she had wanted. To her surprise, Harry didn't respond to her biting tone and instead pulled a silver silk handkerchief from inside his suit jacket pocket and began dabbing her eyes. It was but a simple action but Fleur felt her heartbeat rising and herself blushing slightly from Harry's administrations.

For Harry, comforting girls was one thing that he had to endure pretty much his entire life, which was the drawback of having a little, clingy sister.

"I'm here because of a promise I made to a friend." Harry simply said as he stood up from the bench and offered a hand to Fleur, who just looked at him with surprise.

"It may be a little late but may I have this dance?"

"Why are you doing this Harry? Why are you being so kind to me?_"_ Fleur thought to herself as she slipped her shoes back on and took Harry's hand.

" 'Arry?"

"Yes Fleur?"

"We don't 'ave any music…"

"Oh, sorry… _Accio guitar._" Moments later, Harry's acoustic guitar safeguarded by its case came flying down towards them. Setting the case down, Harry flicked his wand and the case was unlocked, opening to reveal the musical instrument within.

Fleur watched as Harry gave his wand another flick and the guitar rose from its case and began strumming a moderately fast paced Spanish tune. As they tangoed, Fleur felt her loneliness, sadness and all her negative emotions washing away, replacing them were feelings of happiness and joy.

To make things ever better, Harry was a fairly accomplished dancer and she was pleased to see that he could keep up with her. In addition, he didn't looked dazed at all in contrast with Roger Davies, his smile was one of caring not lust and never once did his eyes leave hers.

"Looks like we have company." Harry murmured as he spun Fleur. Fireflies by the tens were now having their own dances near the pair, the tune was now slower and Fleur had pressed herself as close as she could to Harry, which he was a bit uncomfortable with but decided to let it slide.

Fleur just sighed as she listened to Harry's steady heartbeat. What started out as a 'bad' night was now quickly becoming one of the best she ever had.

She looked up and blue eyes met green, "And it's all because of you." Fleur thought.

Through the night, they alternated between different dancing styles; Harry didn't really care about the curfew, a scrawny old man like Filch certainly didn't scare him in the slightest. He never stopped dancing, after seeing Fleur being so miserable, he wanted to do something to help her. Therefore he would be willing to dance the entire night if he had to, though the rational part of his mind was protesting vehemently.

That was when he heard a growling noise and smiled when he saw Fleur looking down and blushing.

"You up for a bite?" Harry asked, to which he only got a shy nod at. Harry waved his wand and the guitar stopped strumming and very neatly placed it self back into its case, the lid popping over it and an audible click could be heard. Then the case floated towards Harry's outstretched hand and surprising himself and Fleur, he gently took her hand and they headed back inside the castle together.

"Where are we going?" Fleur inquired as she tried her best not to enjoy the feeling of her hand in Harry's too much.

"Just trust me." Harry replied as he led her down the stairs and towards the bottom of the Great Hall. Fleur simply observed as Harry stopped in front of a large portrait of a giant bowl of fruit. She raised an amused eyebrow when she saw Harry wiggling his finger against the giant pear but her eyes soon widened when the pear extended out and became a doorknob.

"Right, ladies first?" Harry said with a smirk, which Fleur replied. A strange, slightly unpleasant feeling wormed itself into Fleur's heart when Harry let her hand go, but she shrugged it off as she walked through the now open portrait. What met her was an enormous, high ceiling room, as large as the Great Hall above it, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stonewalls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end.

"Hogwarts Kitchen." Harry said and began walking towards a table, "You coming, Fleur?"

Fleur snapped out of her reverie and followed suit. As soon as she sat down, a female house-elf seemingly appeared out of nowhere and was hugging Harry's leg.

"Mr. Harry has come to the kitchens, Mr. Harry has late night again?"

"Afraid so, Tippy. Would it trouble you if you could bring some lighter dishes and two bottles of butterbeer for me and my guest here." Tippy nodded furiously and scuttled off. Harry narrowed his eyes when he heard Fleur laughing all of a sudden.

"What's so funny?" He inquired.

"It iz nozing, I would 'ave never zought Harry Potter as one for breaking ze rules." Fleur replied.

"Well…nobody's perfect." Harry retorted.

"You come 'ere often?" The quarter Veela quizzed her fellow champion.

"Sometimes…yeah." Fleur smiled as she saw Tippy return with a large tray with a variety of different French food.

"Zank you Tippy." She said, causing a face-splitting smile to appear on the elf's face.

"Miss is too kind…" With a bow, the elf left the pair to their privacy.

" 'ow did you meet this 'ouse-elf?" Fleur asked out of curiosity.

Harry blinked, not really expecting this question. "We met six years ago, when I was still a first year…my father had informed me of the kitchens so I decided to take a look. I was almost caught by Filch when I was leaving but Tippy somehow found me before he did and helped me escape back to Ravenclaw Tower with her magic."

To his annoyance, Fleur began laughing. "I'm zorry, but after seeing your display of magic, eet iz 'ard to picture you needing help from someone else."

Harry's eyes hardened as he tore his gaze from Fleur's. " 'arry?...I'm zorry if I 'ave offended you in any way."

"It's fine, Fleur." He replied, offering a smile to show his sincerity.

The tense atmosphere between them was gone as Harry watched with a smirk as Fleur ate.

"What are you smiling about?" Fleur asked when she looked up from her plate of greens.

"Don't starve yourself again, Fleur…It's not a good thing to do." Harry muttered.

"I won't 'arry, zank you for caring zo much."

"Friends look out for each other." Fleur winced a bit at the word friend, something that had gone unnoticed to Harry.

" 'ave you deciphered the clue from ze egg yet?"

"No, not yet all it does is hurt my ears."

"Mine too…" They shared a smile and went back to their meal.

" 'Arry?" Harry stilled his fork as he looked up to see Fleur's conflicted look.

"What is it?"

"May I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Why do you not fall to my allure?" Of all the things Harry thought she would ask, she had to ask this one. He placed his fork back on his golden plate and thought for a moment before opening his mouth.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't have any clues to that question. I have some theories though." Seeing Fleur's puzzled look, he elaborated. "Well, not many people know but the Imperius curse doesn't work on me." He couldn't help but smirk as he saw Fleur's eyes widening. "I have no real evidence but I suppose the Veela charm works in the same way." Harry theorized while sipping his bottle of butterbeer.

There was a moment of silence before Harry said quietly, "Don't be ashamed of who you are. Those who do should be the ones feeling shameful." Fleur only smiled at Harry's subtle encouragement, she rarely had somebody genuine to talk to when she was away from home save Claire.

"Zanks, 'Arry…" Harry nodded as he went back to his food. Throughout the rest of dinner, the pair talked about their favorite subjects, hobbies, music preferences. As they finished, Fleur watched as Harry said his goodbyes to Tippy, it was heartwarming to see the little elf was chastising Harry to go to bed earlier instead of staying up.

"Zank you for such a wonderful evening…'Arry." Fleur said shyly as they stopped in front of the Beauxbatons carriage, she had protested that she could return to the carriage alone but Harry insisted just in case.

"The honor was mine…Fleur." Harry said causing the beautiful girl before him to smile demurely. Fleur didn't know what caused this sudden wave of shyness, she was definitely not like this when Harry wasn't around.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" Fleur nodded with an amused grin, Harry was terrible at ending awkward silences but she found it to be adorable too.

"And good luck on the second task…"

"You too."

"Good night, Fleur."

"Bonne Nuit 'Arry…" With that, Fleur watched as Harry slowly walked back towards the castle alone until his tall frame was gone from sight.

As he disappeared, a wave of sadness and loneliness loomed over her again. Carefully opening the door to her room, Fleur smiled lightly when she saw her roommate and friend, Claire already asleep. She changed quickly into her nightclothes in the bathroom before carefully putting her dress back into her trunk. She almost laughed when she saw Claire shifting when she used a mild lighting charm while putting her dress back in place. Then she fell to her bed, covering herself with thick blankets, her last thoughts before falling asleep were those of her and a certain green-eyed wizard dancing together under the moonlight with the fireflies doing a dance of their own around them.

* * *

Meanwhile, far up in Ravenclaw Tower, Harry was turning to side to side, attempting to sleep. He was really puzzled and irritated at himself, he had shared things about himself with Fleur that he didn't normally share with his friends. Even Eleanor didn't know about his more than frequent visits to the Kitchens after bedtime. He thought about using his three-way mirror to contact his father and Sirius but the idea was discarded as it was late and he doubted either of them was still up at this hour of time.

Turning sideways on his four-poster bed, he allowed himself to fall into the vast realms of Morpheus. However as time progressed, even as Harry slept, a bad-sinking feeling found its way to his stomach and it prevented him to get the rest that he needed. That feeling remained as he opened his eyes the next morning and changed into his silver tracksuit.

"Strange…why do I have a sense that something's off today?" Harry pondered as he left the tower. The gut-sinking feeling only got worse as Harry started his routine run around the lake. As he made it halfway around the lake he heard it, a barely audible sound of a hex that was speeding towards him from behind. He rolled sideways, evading the sickly magenta curse that no doubt would have struck his back.

Wand in hand, Harry's eyes darted from side to side, trying to determine the direction in which the curse was shot from. He'd barely been able to cast up a shield charm as he saw another jet of magenta speeding towards him. The force behind the curse was stronger than any Harry had faced before as he managed to repel it.

"Nonverbal casting…" He thought and his grip on his wand tightened when he saw a tall hooded figure appearing from the moving clump of shadows and facing him. A grayish black aura instantly flared and pulsed around the stranger as he began a furious onslaught against Harry, who was immediately forced onto a defensive stance. Both of them were casting nonverbally, though it was obvious to Harry that his mysterious opponent had much more experience with it.

It was one of the most, if not most brutal fight he had ever experience as Harry deflected, dodged and shielded himself from the ceaseless advance of his attacker, their wands were merely blurs. He had never felt this pressured, even when he was training with Moody. Harry deflected another magenta curse from the stranger and leap back. The black clad figure, to Harry's horror, sent five consecutive stunners from his wand towards him.

"That's impossible." Harry thought as he deflected one, shielded himself from two and somersaulted his way out of the last two.

"_Depulso."_ Harry gritted his teeth as his opposition threw up a full body, cackling blue shield that prevented himself from being knocked backwards.

"_Gladius Incendio Evocatio."_ Three swords of fire shot out from the unicorn wand and flew straight at the hooded figure, who with a wave of his wand halted the flaming swords and redirected them towards Harry. He gritted his teeth as he waved his wand and a silver sphere erected from light made the swords bounce off harmlessly.

"Who are you, what do you want?" Harry shouted as he kept his eyes on his adversary. The hooded man remain silent and suddenly burst forward towards the Hogwarts champion with a terrorizing fast pace, Harry snarled before silver light covered his entire body and flew out towards the lake with his attacker, covered in a dark fog, hot on his heels.

Harry cringed as he dodged a sickly yellow curse, it would have definitely liquefied his organs if the hex had contacted his body, the technique that he and his attacker were using were a type of teleportation. Dumbledore had personally taught him that technique, stating that it was a good and useful skill when enemies have erected anti-teleportation wards. The drawback was that it was straining for any wizard's magical core if used too long.

The two wizards continued to throw hexes against each other in the sky and masterfully dodging, shielding and deflecting them. Harry was in awe, he had his mind sealed off but yet his opponent was able to predict and successfully counter his every move.

As Harry continued the onslaught, the fear in his heart was growing bigger every second. "I can't sense him…it's as if he isn't there physically." He was also surprised at the hooded man's adaptability, from fighting on the ground to the air.

"_Fulmine." _Blue lightning sprung from the tip of his wand only to be met with a red bolt of lighting. Harry was trying his best to stable the wand in his grip as it shook violently, sending spasms up his arm. The effort in maintaining the spell and keeping himself from falling was too great on the black haired youth as he felt his magical reserves dwindling, for the first time, Harry Potter felt impending dread.

"How is this possible? He doesn't appear to be tired." He thought as narrowly dodged another hex.

"_Congelo_." A beam of silver light erupted from the tip of his wand the same time a burst of flames erupted from the end of his opponent's wand, "_Aguamenti." _Harry quickly countered as the flames easily overwhelmed his beam of ice. He was thrown back for just a moment and that was all that was needed as his adversary shot another bolt of cackling red lightening towards him.

Before he could react, Harry could see a red bolt of lightning flying towards him, there was no way he could dodge it this time. It was coming at him too quickly, wordlessly, he erected a shield but to his horror, the red bolt of lightning passed his shield and suddenly he found it difficult to breathe. His head was beginning to feel light as a sudden, intense pain erupted from his torso.

"Why does it feel like the sky is getting farther?" He thought before everything became black. Alex watched on with indifference as Harry Potter plummeted towards the Earth, He gave his wand an upward flick.

"Descendio Tardus." He watched as the spell went into effect and prevented the boy from falling into pieces into the earth. Wordlessly, he descended back onto the ground, parts of his body fading into clumps of black fog.

Walking slowly to the unconscious teen, Alex pointed his wand at Harry and whispered, "_Enervate."_

Harry felt immense pain erupting from his ribs as the darkness was replaced by light, he groaned with discomfort as he rolled on his back. He looked back and dizzily saw a pair of black boots walking coming closer, in no form to fight back, Harry laid on the grass waiting for the worst to come. When it didn't, he opened his eyes warily and saw that the person he had been fighting had pulled his hood back.

What surprised him was that he was staring into the unsympathetic grayish blue eyes that belonged to a tall man that could not have older than twenty-five with blackish blue hair that was parted on the right side. Minutes could have passed, or was it hours as nothing but the chirping of birds, the soft noise of water in the lake swirling and the gentle breeze filled the air.

"You've lost, Harry James Potter." The man said tersely before turning around and walking away slowly.

"Wait!" Harry shouted and cringed when pain erupted from his lungs. The man stopped in his tracks but did not turn around. "Who are you? How do you know my name?" Another pause entered between them, the man, it was as if the unknown duelist took pleasure from seeing his beaten opponent on the floor.

"…..You seek to protect those you love…but can you?" The man responded before dissolving into dark fog and disappearing into the darkness. He didn't know how much time he spent on his back on the patch of clearing before painfully picking himself up, summoning his wand back into his hand and began his slow journey back to the castle.

Long story short, Madam Pomfrey went ballistic when she saw him staggering into the hospital wing holding his side. The matron queried the teen about what happened but didn't get much response from him other than an off distance hard look. Harry didn't respond when he heard that three of his ribs were cracked and his left leg was slightly fractured as well. All he could think of right now was the brutal duel he had lost not long ago.

It was hard to accept, he had rarely lost to anyone he fought and being floored this heavily was certainly a first. He had given his all in that duel but his opponent was barely sweating while he himself felt as if all energy was drained from his body. The only upside was that Eleanor was here with him, sitting on a chair near the side of his bed.

"Who did this to you?" The blonde asked softly while caressing Harry's cheek.

"I don't know… but he was so much stronger than me." To her disappointment and sadness, he turned his face away from her hand, she didn't know how comfort him save holding onto his wand and whispering words of encouragement.

"I'll beat him next time." Harry swore to himself, he had tasted defeat once and once was enough. Dumbledore and his head of house, Filius Flitwick came by the Hospital Wing shortly, much to Harry's disdain, he wasn't looking forward to explain his current situation.

"Harry, I've heard from Madam Pomfrey that you have refused to explain the details regarding to your injuries. Might I ask why?" Dumbledore inquired.

Staring defiantly into the ancient headmaster's eyes Harry responded, "It's none of her concern, as it is with you headmaster."

"Harry, an attack on a student is no small matter… I understand…being defeated is never one likes to taste." Harry looked over to Eleanor who squeezed his hand affectionately; one look at her face was all the answer Harry needed. He took a deep breath before recounting the entire duel, leaving nothing out.

"That does not resemble anyone I know." Dumbledore said pensively.

"Me either, but it is strange." Flitwick squeaked, "It could not have been an auror, since they could not have displayed the abilities you have just said and neither could it have been Death Eaters as they have been off the grid for some time now."

"So it can only mean one thing." Harry thought. "Professor, could it have been an Unspeakable?"

Flitwick nearly lost his balance as he was pacing around, Dumbledore also looked as if something had frozen him in place.

"An Unspeakable?...Who knows with them? They have been secluding themselves politically for nearly ten years. And the Department of Mysteries has been sealed off after the last Head exchange. But then again, they have ears and eyes everywhere in every corner of the world."

"How are they grouped?" Eleanor asked her Head of House.

Flitwick scratched his head before squeaking a reply, "That is unknown to anybody save themselves, there is a reason they are named Unspeakables, though to my knowledge if I were to hazard a guess, there are three factions: Political, Military, Research. All are above the law. That is why they have such an immense contact network, for studying and researching new and odd discoveries that might have a large impact on the wizard world."

"How do you know all that Professor?" Eleanor asked, frowning, her head of house had said that he was speculating but it didn't sound like a mere speculation.

"That…is another story for another time, I'm afraid." Flitwick squeaked and walked away after bidding Harry to get better soon.

"I must retire too, thank you for this information Harry." Dumbledore bade the two of them good day and also walked out of the Hospital Wing. The headmaster was deep in thought as he retired to his office, in addition to Neville informing him that his scar hurt, it seemed that the Unspeakables have shown interest in Harry Potter. He'd know that Harry had wanted to seek them out, hoping to join them. Filius was correct in that they haven't shown any trace of existing for some time now, but if they have somehow shown themselves again, then it meant that Zathras would too very soon. He knew all too well of what Zathras was like, he saw all purebloods as cancer on wizard society and all sympathizers of Voldemort and Grindelwald should be annihilated. And now, he was even more unpredictable since gaining full control of the Unspeakable order.

* * *

"I see you've returned…" Alex remained emotionless as Zathras spoke to him without turning around.

"I did what you have asked…it was hardly a duel."

"Yet you did not make it easy for him…"

"Easy is an attitude that I will never use against anyone I face, though I must admit…he has the potential…"

"Perhaps this defeat will give him the necessary inspiration…"

"You still haven't told me why this boy is important…he is powerful, for his age but why him?"

"You said it yourself, he's powerful for a boy so young, imagine the possibilities when his true power manifests. He could become an excellent asset to our cause. Aren't you the slightest bit curious?" Zathras said in a tone that signaled that the discussion was over and calmly sipped his shot of whisky.

"What is my next assignment?"

"Nothing right now…"

"You expect me to just do nothing?" Alex growled.

"Most people would be most gratified for a reprieve, not you… but I guess if you did, you won't be carrying the number one title…" Alex turned around and disappeared into the shadows, leaving Zathras alone in the large, spacious, empty room. The Unspeakable leader merely mysteriously smiled as he stared at the holographic image of the planet Earth in front of him. "We'll see each other soon…Harry."

* * *

Over the next few days, Harry had received many visitors; Cedric, Cho, his brother and Eleanor were constantly with him. He had sternly ordered his brother not to tell his parents of his current state, knowing his mother would probably barge in and make things difficult to explain for him. Soon Harry's injuries were almost non-existent and went on about his every day-to-day schedule much to Madam Pomfrey's concern. She did prohibit him from participating in any strenuous activities, which was the reason for why Harry had spent all of his free time in the library with his golden egg.

He was looking at books, which he hoped that will help him get closer to deciphering the ear shattering golden egg. Taking a break, he delved into his inner robe pocket and pulled out a get-well card that oddly had no name of the sender. However he could tell the sender was female due to the handwriting and that it had a rosy scent on it. Truth be told, he had received a substantiate amount of get well cards, most of it from his fellow female peers much to Eleanor's dislike.

He enjoyed teasing her about it, and received a kick to his injured leg for it, though she was apologetic afterwards. Calling it a night, he placed the books he had back onto their respective shelves and left the library with his golden egg in his grasp. On his way back to Ravenclaw Tower, an idea hit him straight on. "The three common elements are earth, air, and…._water_."

Rushing back to his common room, and dormitory, ignoring everyone and everything, he fished out his swimming trunks and ran back out of his common room. He reached the fourth floor and standing near the statue of Boris the Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, he located the right door, leant close to it and muttered the password, "Pine-fresh."

The door creaked open. Harry slipped inside, bolted the door behind and looked around. Though he was a prefect himself, he had never used the bathroom before, the showers in the dormitory was way more efficient. A splendid candle-filled chandelier softly lighted the bathroom, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pool's edges, each with a different-colored jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linen curtains hung at the windows; a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a single golden-framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid, who was awake on a rock, smiling and winking at him while running her hands through her long hair.

He then stripped and changed into his swimming trunks, turned on the water taps and waited, pacing back and forth while staring at his golden egg. Then, when the deep pool was full of hot water, foam and bubbles, Harry turned off the taps and jumped into the pool, splashing water in every direction. Staring back at the unmoving golden egg, Harry decided to test his theory, grabbing the egg with his soppy, wet hands and placing it beneath the water, he shut his eyes as he opened it and to his surprise, it did not wail.

A gurgling song was coming out of it, a song whose words he could not distinguish through the water. Knowing what he had to do, he took a deep breath and slid under the surface. The gurgling song was now clear to him as he listened to a chorus of eerie voices singing to him from the open egg in his hands:

_'Come seek us where our voices sound, _

_We cannot sing above the ground, And while you're searching, ponder this: _

_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

_ An hour long you'll have to look, _

_And to recover what we took, But past an hour – the prospect's black _

_Too late, it's gone, it won't come back. _

Harry let himself float back upwards and broke the bubbly surface, shaking his hair out of his eyes and reached for his towel to wipe the water off from his face. When he was done, he placed the towel down and he was shocked to see Fleur standing on the white marble floor above him. He was at a total loss for words, she was wearing nothing save a white bikini inside her bathrobe which left little to imagination.

"Um…Good Evening, Fleur. I see your purpose is similar to mine no?" Harry said nodding to the golden egg in her grasp, breaking the tension between them.

Fleur offered a smile but inwardly smirked at Harry's flushed look when she took her bathrobe off and entered the pool, purposely choosing a spot close to him.

In the beginning, she had thought that Harry wasn't attracted to her in the slightest which she felt was unique and new but as their friendship sprouted and grew, that changed. However, the way he looked at her was different than those of other men and boys who only had lust in their eyes, which she found herself liking and craved for. That and as she scanned his body, she liked what she saw, Harry was lean and muscular, not too much but enough to be noticeable.

"I'm, going to dry myself off, the pool's yours." Harry said, smiling that smile she loved so much. She couldn't help but pout as he climbed from the pool, she wondered what it would be like to run her hand over his chest and abs.

"Fleur, what are you thinking? You have a task to do, concentrate." Her mind shrieked at her.

Mimicking Harry's actions, she opened the egg under the water and submerged herself into the warm water. Once she got the song memorized, the quarter Veela returned to the water's surface and smiled her thanks as Harry passed her a fluffy towel. Once she was dried off, she joined Harry and sat next to him on the pool's edge.

"How did you gain access to this bathroom? Doesn't your carriage have their own bathrooms?" Harry asked.

"Zey only 'ave showers, and I might 'ave coaxed the password from a prefect. It wasn't 'ard. I would 'ave asked a female prefect but zey all refused my request." Fleur replied and giggled at Harry's amused expression.

"I'm sure. I was wondering why you didn't use the girl's bathroom." Harry became puzzled when he saw Fleur turn her head away.

"What's wrong, Fleur?"

"I'm zo, zo zorry 'Arry…"

"What for?" Harry asked.

"For not visiting you… you were always wiz so many people…" Fleur explained feebly.

"It's alright Fleur…you made it up by giving me that card…" Fleur instantly snapped her head towards Harry.

" 'ow did you?" "Your handwriting and your…" Fleur felt her entire body freeze when she felt Harry leaning dangerously close to her face. "scent tipped me off." He replied with another smile.

In that moment, she wanted to kiss him, to be able to taste those pink lips but restrained herself because she knew he didn't have any feelings for her. Ever since Harry and her had shared that magical dance in the Hogwart's Gardens, and him deliberately sharing one of his secrets, taking her to the kitchens, she couldn't stop thinking about him. She longed to see him everyday, to see his smile that has always managed to brighten her day and relieve her of her troubles. But it had hurt a lot to know that Harry wasn't interested in her, though she would never asked him about it but she got the feeling that he only danced with her because he wanted to keep his promise, nothing more.

The two of them talked more at the edge of the pool before gathering their respective golden egg and leaving the bathroom. Fleur felt dejected as she saw Harry walking off after escorting her to the Entrance Hall. She had initially said it was not necessary but inwardly her heart leapt with joy but now he had left, those feelings subsided.

* * *

**Day of the Second Task**

Harry stretched out his limbs as he prepared himself mentally while looking at the pitch-dark, murky Black Lake that seemed to have no depth.

"I hope I won't run into the Giant Squid." He thought. He was wearing a blue sleeveless shirt and black swimming trunks, a wand holster secured on his left calf.

"You alright Harry." Cedric asked from beside him as he took Harry's robes from him.

"I'm good." Was the response that came from the Ravenclaw. Bagman then rounded all the champions together, Fleur, Harry noticed had decided to let her hair flow down naturally instead of holding it together in a usual bun. Her full body swimsuit fitted her snugly in all the right places.

"Everyone ready?" Bagman asked in a high pitched voice, no champion responded, prompting Bagman to continue, "Yes, for this task, a single person of great value to each of you has been placed in the bottom of the Black Lake, you have one hour to retrieve them."

All of the champions and Bagman were disturbed from their talk when Neville Longbottom finally arrived, to Madame Maxine and Karkaroff's displeasure. Bagman then gave Neville the same instructions given to the other three champions alone.

"You don't look so well Fleur, are you okay?" Harry asked, and immediately cursed himself for being so sentimental. The beautiful quarter Veela looked downtrodden and almost afraid?

" 'Arry, they 'ave taken Gabrielle…" It took a moment for Harry to comprehend who Fleur was talking about.

"Your sister right?" Fleur nodded. "And I'm guessing that in the water, you're out of your element." Another nod from the Quarter Veela responded his question. Hesitantly, Harry placed a hand on her bare shoulder, sending shivers down Fleur's spine.

"You'll get her back. You're not alone in this. Believe in your abilities." Fleur looked up and blue eyes met green.

"Merci, 'Arry." The moment was gone as Bagman's magnified voice boomed out, "_Sonorus."_ Everything became silent.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. N the count of three, then." Harry positioned himself between Fleur and Krum.

"One…" Bagman shouted.

"_Addo Aeris."_ Harry said in a barely audible tone.

"Two…..._Three!"_ A cannon shot was heard and the stands erupted with cheers and applause as the three champions dove in.

To his surprise and relief, Harry found himself breathing under water as bubbles came out of his mouth. The spell he had used was a simple one, filtering out the water through his noise and transferring it into oxygen he could breathe into. Calmly, he began to propel through the water.

* * *

Fleur shivered while trying get pass the thick forest of rippling tangled black weed. A bubble around her mouth and nose was the only thing that kept her from drowning. The quarter Veela felt truly scared the first time, with her natural fire abilities useless in this environment.

However, she carried on swimming, "Gabrielle is waiting for me. I will not let anything happen to her_." _Fleur thought and determination flowed through her, strengthening her resolve for the task.

She was almost through the murky weed forest but suddenly something attached itself around her lower left leg and was starting to pull her down to the depths. Fleur struggled but whatever ambushed her was too strong.

"Is this the end?_"_ Fleur pondered with despair. Just as she thought her life would be over, the strong force that was holding on to her leg was gone and replacing it was a force that was pulling her back up. She looked up and she saw herself staring into familiar green eyes.

In all her life, Fleur would have never see herself as a damsel in distress yet here she was, saved by a charming handsome hero. She mouthed her thanks, to which Harry replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Fleur expected him to leave her here and was surprised when he touched her arm and beckoned her to follow him.

"Why are you doing this Harry?" She pondered as she swam alongside of him. They swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing murkily as they disturbed the water. Then, at long last, Fleur heard a snatch of haunting mer-song. It prompted her to swim faster, and soon she saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water. It had paintings of mermaids on it; they were carrying spears, and chasing what looked like a giant squid. She inwardly shivered, Veela and Mermaids despised each other since both species could remember.

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. And from them, she saw faces, they were simply too ethereal to be normal. The mermaids all had creamy skins and long, silky, flowing blonde, red or brown hair. Most of them had blue or brown eyes. True to their name, all of them had large full breasts and a fish tail starting going down from their upper body.

They leered at Fleur and Harry as they swam past, shooting looks of immense dislike and disgust at Fleur while giving Harry curious and infatuated ones. Fleur was surprised at Harry's tenacity at completing his task, he barely even spared a look at the mermaids.

"Any other man would be tempted…" She thought as they swam on. Soon they arrived at what seemed to be the Mermaid's village square, a whole crowd of mermaids were singing, behind them rose a statue; a gigantic mermaid hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone mermaid.

The two champions nodded towards each other before shooting towards their respective hostages. Eleanor was tied between Hermione Granger and Hannah Abbott. She seemed to be in a very deep sleep, her head was lolling onto her shoulder and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from her mouth.

Harry was relieved to find a pulse and after distancing himself a bit from the sleeping Eleanor, raised his wand and thought in his mind, "_Sectumsempra!" _

The powerful, dark, cutting spell severed the ropes of weed as if it were butter. After repeating the spell three more times on Eleanor's other bound limbs, Harry wrapped her arms around the unconscious girl and began his ascension to the surface.

The added weight proved to be a supplementary difficulty in what would have been an easy ascension but Harry continued, nevertheless, if there was one thing he learned about women, it was to shut up whenever the topic of weight was brought into a conversation.

He was snapped from his thoughts when he felt a disturbance in the water, he looked down and to his horror, a large pack of Grindylows were waiting for them behind their coral hideouts and were ferociously assaulting Fleur and her little sister.

He could see Fleur doing her best to protect her sister but there was simply too many, soon she became separated from her hostage as the small but savage underwater predators continued to attack her.

Harry aimed his wand at Eleanor and thought, "_Ascendio!"_ He did the same with Fleur's sister and immediately dove downwards back to the murky depths.

Fleur was lashing out in every direction as Grindylows swarmed at her, "I'm so sorry, Gabrielle, that I couldn't protect you." She lamented when her bubblehead charm dissipated, she struggled as her vision grew darker and dizziness began to kick in. She saw the numerous, moving dark shapes before her all stilled and another figure coming towards her, a figure that was swimming for her.

* * *

Harry felt immense anger when he saw Fleur being attacked, pointing his wand at the Grindylows he mentally cried "_Immobulus!" _The immobilizing charm worked as the underwater predators all entered a frozen state. Darting through the nasty creatures, Harry secured an arm around Fleur, knowing something had to be done and fast, attached his lips to hers.

Fleur's haziness slowly disappeared when she felt something warm on her lips and oxygen flowing through her lungs again. Bit by bit she regained consciousness, her heart was caught in her mouth when she saw a familiar pair of large green emerald eyes with immense concern in them, Fleur mentally berated herself for putting Harry at risk again just to save her again. She then lazily wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and kicked at the water with her own legs, to minimize the work Harry had to do all by himself.

Harry, now realizing that Fleur had regained consciousness looked relieved, but his lips remained glued to hers. Soon they broke the surface, the cold, clear air was making their faces sting; Fleur reluctantly detached her lips from Harry's but not fast enough as they were drowned by the cheering, catcalling and wolf howling from the crowds.

Fleur scanned the crowd as she and Harry swam to the shore and located her sister next an elderly matron, the little Veela was tightly bundled up in thick blankets and dimpled cutely at her, she was all right and Fleur could finally let out her breath of relief that she had been holding onto since the start of the task.

"'Arry…" The young man in question turned his head back found himself staring at a tearing Fleur Delacour. "Zank you…"

"It was nothing, lets go to shore, your sister's waiting." Harry replied and grabbed her hand, giving it a quick squeeze.

"Oui…" They made it to shore where Madam Pomfrey immediately seized them both and wrapped them both in thick blankets, Harry felt that he was in a straitjacket. He was then forced to down a hot potion, which made steam gush out of his ears. Harry smiled when he saw Gabrielle hugging her big sister tightly, jabbering in rapid French while Madam Pomfrey applied a paste of some sort to the cuts on her legs and arms. Fleur smiled back tiredly when their eyes met again.

Harry found himself a seat on a patch of clearing away from the crowd and was surprised when he was pulled into a suffocating embrace, the fiery red hair indicated a tongue-lashing was inevitable.

"Thank Merlin you're okay, I was so worried when Eleanor surfaced without you…what happened?" Lily Potter gushed out as she hugged her first born with all her strength.

"Love you too, Mum." Harry replied and earned himself a swat to the head, then he explained how Fleur was being attacked by Grindylows and that he decided to go back for her after making sure his hostage as well as Fleur's surfaced.

"I'm proud of you son," James Potter said as he squeezed his wife's arm and ruffled Harry's wet hair. "Not a lot of people would have done what you have done. Many people would have opted to leave her and to get first place."

Harry immediately stood up from his seat and said, "It was the right thing to do Dad, I just couldn't leave her like that."

He was confused when James smiled widely. "That's our boy, Lils." He said to Lily, who gave her husband a watery smile.

"I'm alright mum." Harry said while hugging his mother, patting her soothingly on the back. He was a little miffed when she gave him a peck on the cheek, but said nothing regarding to it.

"You want something to drink, dear?" Lily asked.

"A bit of pumpkin juice would be nice." Harry replied and watched as his parents walked off.

"Are you going to be okay?" A small voice asked him.

"I'll be fine Rose." Harry said as his little sister wrapped her small arms around his waist. The small redhead smiled cutely at him and began firing all sorts of questions at her older brother about the lake.

"Yes Rose, the mermaids were very pretty." Harry smiled as Rose squealed and demanded that he tell her more about them.

"I thought the Giant Squid had devoured you or something, by the way, you and Delacour…there'll be loads of rumors flying around after your little PDA." Ryan Potter said with a grin as he gave his older brother a high-five.

Rose grew frighten when her brother mentioned a squid and fearfully hid behind Harry when Ryan lied that the Squid will always devour some unlucky first year children when they first cross the lake. Harry merely shot his little brother an annoyed glare.

"'Arry?" Harry turned around and saw Fleur standing behind him, Ryan immediately stopped telling tales about the Giant Squid to his sister and eyed the two of them warily. Rose, well, merely looked at Fleur with wide green eyes.

"How're you coping? The Grindylows were pretty ferocious." Harry asked concernedly.

"I'm fine, just mainly cuts, nozing serious. I would like to zank you again for saving me and my sister…" Fleur started.

"It's okay Fleur…you don't have to thank me. I did what anyone would have done in my position."

"Most people would… 'ow do you say eet, turn a blind eye?"

"Well, consider me unlike most people then." Harry smiled at her, which she replied with a dazzling one of her own.

"Gabrielle, say 'ello. You're being rude." Fleur said and to Harry's amusement, a whine could be heard from behind Fleur as a small girl stepped out from her hiding place behind her sister.

Gabrielle was almost an exact replica of Fleur only smaller, she couldn't have looked older than ten and had the same silver blonde hair her older sister had and the same blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you Gabrielle, I'm Harry. Are you okay?" The small Veela merely nodded with her eyes on the ground, pink tinges appearing on her cheeks.

"She iz very shy." Fleur explained with a grin.

Harry couldn't suppress a tired smile when he saw Rose approach the small Veela and asked, "Hi, my name's Rose, what's yours? You wanna be friends?" The outward, cheerful redhead asked excitedly. Gabrielle nodded with enthusiasm and the two small girls began to chatter in a speed that Harry thought would be impossible.

Then he saw his parents chatting with a man and woman who he presumed to be Fleur's parents as he saw a large smile formed on his fellow champion's lips.

"_Maman, Papa!" _Fleur shouted happily as she ran into her parents' embrace, which was mirrored by her little sister a moment later. Tears slowly flowed from Fleur's eyes as her parents and sister embraced her, family meant everything to her and her time at Hogwarts was painful to bear at times.

"_Your father and I are so proud of you, my flower." _Apolline Delacour whispered in her daughter's ear.

Fleur extracted herself from her mother's grasp and after a moment said, "_I had help…I wouldn't have finished, without him."_ Apolline glanced at who was having her daughter's attention and smiled.

"_Well then, shall we go say hello Alain?" _Apolline asked her husband with a mischievous smile. Alain simply nodded, returning a smile at his wife.

* * *

"So, mermaids huh?" James asked his son in a teasing tone, Rosy and Ryan had gone off to grab something to eat.

"Dad, you do realize mum is standing next to you right?" Harry replied with a smirk and added, "Hot, but fishtails aren't really my kind of thing."

Lily merely rolled her eyes at her husband and son's antics.

"'Arry?" Harry turned his head and stared deeply into the eyes of the voice's owner.

"I want you to meet my parents." Fleur said, Harry's eyes darted to the man and woman behind her. It was clear where Fleur had inherited her beauty from; her mother had the same silver blonde hair, blue eyes, fair complexion and the enviable body figure. Fleur's father was a tall man, with sharp calculating blue eyes and a head full of brown hair that was starting to grey at the temple, he had an analytical expression plastered on his face, as if he was observing him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Delacour." Harry said as he shook both of Fleur's parents and looked them in the eyes when did so. He could tell Fleur's mother was shocked that he was able to ignore the Veela Allure altogether. Mr. Delacour finally dropped his analytical expression and a smile appeared on his face, he was testing whether the things his daughter gushed about this young man were valid or not.

Harry then introduced his parents to Fleur and her parents. Both Apolline and Fleur were again surprised that all Potter men were immune to the Veela Allures. Apolline actually let out a melodious laugh when Lily informed her that the reason her husband had no reaction to the Veela charm was that his head was filled with rocks.

"Ze pleasure is ours, Monsieur Potter. We owe you ze lives of our daughters. Fleur 'as told us everyzing zat 'as 'appened in ze lake." Apolline said.

"I'm afraid I have to disagree with you m'am. Fleur has performed wondrously so far, her determination in the lake was the reason she completed this task. I only helped her a tiny bit." Harry said sincerely.

Fleur blushed mildly when she heard his praise, he'd certainly made her more impressive than she actually was.

"And might I ask what iz your intention wiz my daughter?" Apolline asked with an impish smile.

"_Maman!"_ Fleur shrieked with embarrassment. Much to her chagrin, her parents and Harry's parents smiled knowingly at the two young adults.

"Fleur's been a really tough competitor for me as well as a very good friend." Harry said.

Fleur felt as if her heart was being constricted as soon as she heard the word friend, was that all they were, after everything, just friends?

Apolline saw the brief, hurt look that appeared on her daughter's face, "Oh Fleur…"She thought.

Together, they walked back to where Dumbledore and the other judges were standing, Krum and Neville had both finished apparently. Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, after much discussion and consideration, we have reached our decision. We have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows…Miss Fleur Delacour demonstrated the Bubble-Head Charm with great skill and retrieved her hostage well within time limit. We award her fifty points."

As applause rain upon the Beauxbatons Champion, there was no sign of a smile that graced her lips. Why? It was all because of the person that helped her gain those points. She did however applause immensely when Harry's marks were announced; he remained first, which wasn't surprising to her.

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty fourth of June." Bagman boomed. "The champions will be notified of what is coming, precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

As the large body of students disembarked back to the castle, Apolline pulled her eldest daughter off to a side after giving her husband and Gabby a nod.

"_What is it maman?" _Fleur asked tiredly.

"_You like him."_ It was not a question Fleur's mother had just shot out. Veela were, after all, empathetic beings.

"_Okay Maman! I admit, I like him a lot. He is the only man that I have these feelings for. 'Arry listens to me and actually takes time to know me." _Fleur was near tears, her shoulders shaking as her mother engulfed her in a gentle hug.

Apolline smiled as Fleur recounted the encounters and talks she had with Harry and sighed as her daughter told her how he went to find her after her disastrous Yule Ball and made up his promise and more. Fleur might not be able to see it but Apolline certainly did, there was more than simple infatuation between her daughter and Harry.

"_Fleur dear, just because Harry says you're his friend doesn't mean that he has no feelings for you." _Fleur sniffed at her mother's words.

"_What do you mean?" _Fleur asked. "_You're going to have to figure that one yourself…and according to his mother, he is not currently with anyone." _Apolline said with a wink, which Fleur knew too well.

Then they walked in the direction towards the Beauxbatons Carriage and Fleur felt the sadness that was weighing her down lessening already.


End file.
